Do I report a London branch account of a US bank on Form 8938?

Generally not. The Form 8938 instructions exclude accounts maintained by a US payer, which in general includes a foreign branch or foreign subsidiary of a US financial institution. The IRS comparison chart lists such accounts as No for Form 8938 and Yes for the FBAR. Your other UK assets still count towards the Form 8938 thresholds.

My London private banker manages an account booked in New York. Is it foreign?

Generally no. The FBAR asks where the account is maintained, not where your relationship manager works. An account genuinely booked and maintained by the US entity in New York is not a foreign financial account, even if serviced from London. Confirm the booking entity in writing with the bank and keep that confirmation with your records.

How do I file a missed FBAR for a UK account now?

Late FBARs are filed electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System, selecting a reason for late filing or 'other' with an explanation. If income was also left off your US returns, the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures are usually more appropriate. The former Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures page was withdrawn by the IRS in 2026 and is not a live route.

What is the penalty for a non-willful missed FBAR after Bittner?

The Supreme Court held in Bittner v. United States (2023) that the non-willful penalty applies per report, not per account. The statutory base is $10,000 per violation, adjusted annually for inflation under 31 CFR 1010.821. No penalty applies where there was reasonable cause and the account is properly reported. Streamlined participants are not subject to FBAR penalties.

Does HMRC share information about my UK accounts with the IRS?

Under the UK-US agreement to implement FATCA, UK financial institutions report information on accounts held by US persons to HMRC, which forwards it to the IRS, as HMRC's International Exchange of Information Manual explains. US citizens in the UK should assume their UK banking relationships can be visible to the IRS and keep their FBAR filings complete.

Missed FBAR: London Branch of a US Bank Accounts

Q: Is an account at the London branch of a US bank reportable on the FBAR?

Yes, if your foreign accounts together exceed $10,000 at any time in the year. FinCEN's instructions state that an account maintained with a branch of a US bank physically located outside the United States is a foreign financial account. The nationality of the bank is irrelevant; the physical location where the account is maintained decides whether it is foreign.

A Missed FBAR on an account held at the London branch of a US bank is one of the most common and most avoidable gaps we find in the returns of Americans living in the UK. The short answer is that the account almost certainly was reportable: for FBAR purposes the test is where the account is physically maintained, not the nationality of the bank that owns it. An account booked at a branch of a US bank located in London is a foreign financial account, and if your foreign accounts together exceeded $10,000 at any point in the year, an FBAR was due.

The confusion is understandable. The bank has a familiar American name, the relationship team speaks the language of US wealth management, statements may be issued in dollars, and some clients even receive US-style tax documents. Many high-net-worth US citizens in London therefore assume the account is 'American' and falls outside foreign reporting. This guide explains the precise rule, why the same account can be reportable on the FBAR but generally not on Form 8938, how multi-jurisdiction private bank platforms should be analysed account by account, and how to put missed years right using the routes that actually exist today.

Is an account at a London branch of a US bank a foreign account for FBAR?

Yes. A foreign financial account is a financial account located outside the United States. FinCEN's own FBAR filing instructions give the exact example that matters here: an account maintained with a branch of a United States bank that is physically located outside the United States is a foreign financial account, while an account maintained with a branch of a foreign bank that is physically located in the United States is not. The IRS FBAR Reference Guide (Publication 5569, at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5569.pdf) repeats the point with two mirror-image illustrations: an account at a branch of a US bank physically located in Germany is a foreign financial account, and an account at a branch of a French bank physically located in Texas is not.

Substitute London for Germany and the answer does not change. The FBAR does not ask who owns the bank, where its head office is, which regulator supervises the group or which currency the account is held in. It asks where the account is maintained. In the returns we prepare, this single sentence resolves most of the 'but it is a US bank' conversations we have with new clients.

The general filing rule is set out on the IRS FBAR page at https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar and on FinCEN's page at https://www.fincen.gov/report-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts as well. A United States person with a financial interest in, or signature authority over, foreign financial accounts must file FinCEN Form 114 if the aggregate value of those accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. The FBAR is due April 15 following the calendar year reported, with an automatic extension to October 15.

What about a UK subsidiary of a US banking group?

A UK-incorporated subsidiary of a US banking group is, if anything, a clearer case than a branch. It is a separate UK entity, its accounts are maintained in the UK, and the physical-location test points firmly outside the United States. For FBAR purposes an account at a UK subsidiary is a foreign financial account in exactly the same way as an account at a British high-street bank.

Clients sometimes cannot tell whether they bank with a branch or a subsidiary, because the branding is identical. For FBAR it rarely matters, because both are physically located in the UK. It does matter for the account-identification details you enter on the form, so we always take the legal entity name and address from the account-opening documents or the statement footer rather than from the marketing name. Where the entity is a branch, the form should show the name of the institution and the address of the London office where the account is maintained.

Booking location versus relationship location: which one decides?

Private banks often separate where an account is booked from where the client is served. A US citizen living in Mayfair may deal every week with a London relationship banker, attend meetings in the London office and sign documents there, while the account itself is opened and maintained on the books of the US entity in New York. The reverse also happens: an American client who used to live in New York keeps a US-based adviser, but the deposit account was moved onto the London branch's books when they relocated.

The FBAR test follows the account, not the banker. The question is where the financial account is maintained. The IRS Reference Guide gives a helpful analogy: a US citizen who buys shares in a French company through a securities broker located in New York does not report those securities, because they were purchased through a financial institution located in the United States. The foreign character of the underlying asset, or of the person you speak to, does not convert a US-maintained account into a foreign one. By the same logic, a London relationship manager servicing an account that is genuinely booked and maintained in the United States does not make that account foreign.

This is where care is needed, and where we see the most errors in both directions. The account opening agreement, the terms and conditions, the legal entity named on the statement and the account number format usually show the booking location. If the documents are ambiguous, ask the bank in writing which legal entity and which office maintains each account. Keep that answer on file: FBAR records must be retained for five years from April 15 of the year following the calendar year reported, and a written confirmation from the bank is exactly the kind of evidence that supports a position later.

Multi-jurisdiction private bank platforms: analyse each account separately

Wealth platforms frequently present a single consolidated statement that hides several legally distinct accounts. A typical structure for an American family in London might combine a sterling current account and a dollar call deposit booked at the London branch, a custody and brokerage account booked with the US broker-dealer in New York, and perhaps a discretionary portfolio managed from London but custodied in the United States. The consolidated 'relationship value' on page one is not what the FBAR asks for.

Cash and deposit accounts booked at the London branch or UK subsidiary: foreign financial accounts, reportable on the FBAR if the aggregate threshold is met.
Custody or brokerage accounts maintained on the books of the US entity in New York: generally not foreign financial accounts, even if a London team advises on them.
Discretionary mandates: look at where the account holding the assets is maintained, not where the portfolio manager sits.
Loan and Lombard facilities: a credit line secured on assets is not itself the deposit or custody account, but the collateral accounts must still be classified on their own facts.
Accounts where you only hold signature authority, such as a company account you can operate: signature authority alone can create an FBAR filing obligation, so classify these too.

FinCEN's instructions require each account to be valued separately at its maximum value during the calendar year, in the currency of the account, then converted to US dollars using the Treasury rate for the last day of the calendar year. Periodic statements may be relied on if they fairly reflect the maximum value. The Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange are published by Treasury at https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/treasury-reporting-rates-of-exchange and should be used for each year. A consolidated statement rarely shows the peak balance of each underlying account, so in practice we request account-level statements for every month of the year.

Why the same account can be on the FBAR but not on Form 8938

This is the asymmetry that catches out even careful filers and some preparers. Form 8938, the FATCA Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, uses a different test. It asks about financial accounts maintained by a foreign financial institution, and the Form 8938 instructions at https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8938 exclude financial accounts maintained by a US payer. The instructions state that, in general, a US payer also includes a foreign branch or foreign subsidiary of a US financial institution, as well as a domestic branch of a foreign bank.

The IRS side-by-side comparison at https://www.irs.gov/businesses/comparison-of-form-8938-and-fbar-requirements makes the point directly: for financial accounts maintained at foreign branches of US financial institutions, the answer is No for Form 8938 and Yes for the FBAR. The FBAR, by contrast, reports financial accounts maintained by a financial institution physically located in a foreign country.

FBAR test: is the account physically located outside the United States? A London branch account is in scope.
Form 8938 test: is the account maintained by a foreign financial institution rather than a US payer? A foreign branch of a US institution is generally treated as a US payer, so the account is generally out of scope.
Result: a London branch account can be FBAR-reportable while being left off Form 8938, and that is not an inconsistency on your return.
Mirror case: an account at the New York branch of a UK bank is generally not on the FBAR and generally not on Form 8938 either.

Two cautions. First, the Form 8938 instructions use the words 'in general', so we confirm the institution's status rather than assuming it, particularly for UK subsidiaries within US groups. Second, the exclusion only removes that account from Form 8938; your other UK accounts, such as a high-street current account, a UK brokerage account or a UK pension, still count towards the Form 8938 thresholds. For a US taxpayer living abroad and filing single, Form 8938 applies where specified foreign financial assets exceed $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or $300,000 at any time during the year; for married filing jointly the figures are $400,000 and $600,000. Clients who conclude that 'nothing goes on the 8938, so nothing goes on the FBAR' have usually reasoned in exactly the wrong direction.

Does receiving a Form 1099 mean the account is not foreign?

No. Some US banking groups issue US information returns, such as Form 1099-INT, to US account holders even for accounts serviced abroad, because of how the US information reporting rules apply to US payers and their foreign offices. Whether you receive one depends on the institution and the account. Receiving a 1099 tells you that income was reported to the IRS; it says nothing about whether the account is a foreign financial account for FBAR purposes. The two regimes are separate. The FBAR is a Bank Secrecy Act report filed with FinCEN, not an income tax form, and no 1099 substitutes for it.

The practical point for your tax return is that interest shown on a 1099 must be reported once, not twice, and the Schedule B Part III question about foreign accounts must still be answered on the basis of the FBAR test. If the London branch account made you an FBAR filer, the answer to the foreign account question is yes, even though the account appears on a US-style income document. We regularly see returns where the income is correct but the foreign account box is ticked 'No', which leaves the return internally inconsistent with the later FBAR.

On the UK side, HMRC's International Exchange of Information Manual at https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/international-exchange-of-information/ieim400040 explains that under the UK-US agreement to implement FATCA, UK financial institutions report information on accounts held by US persons to HMRC, which forwards it to the IRS. Whatever route the data takes for any particular account, the assumption that the IRS cannot see a London account held by a US citizen is not one we would rely on. UK tax on the interest is a separate matter, reported through Self Assessment where required, and any UK tax paid may be relevant to foreign tax credits on the US return.

Missed FBAR for a London branch account: how do you fix it?

Once you know the account was reportable, the remedy depends on two questions: are your US income tax returns otherwise complete and correct, and was the failure non-willful? Before choosing a route, collect account-level maximum balances for every year that may be missing, confirm the booking entity of each account and check whether any income from the account was omitted from your returns.

Route 1: late FBAR filing through BSA E-Filing with a reason. If all income from the London accounts was already reported and taxed on your US returns, for example because the bank issued a 1099 and it was included, and the only gap is the FBAR itself, the usual step is to file the missing FBARs electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. FinCEN's guidance at https://www.fincen.gov/filing-late explains that where a report is filed after October 15 of the year following the reporting year, you select the reason for late filing from a drop-down list or choose 'other' and give a written explanation. The IRS FBAR page advises that people who have not been contacted by the IRS and are not under investigation should file late FBARs as soon as possible to keep potential penalties to a minimum. The explanation should be factual and specific: that the account was held at a branch of a US bank and was believed, wrongly, not to be foreign.

Be clear on what this route is not. The IRS page once titled the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures was withdrawn around 1 July 2026 and should not be treated as a live, named programme. Late FBARs are filed through BSA E-Filing with a reason for late filing, or as part of the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures. The IRS Reference Guide notes that if a foreign account is properly reported on a late-filed FBAR and the IRS determines the violation was due to reasonable cause, no penalty will be imposed.

Route 2: the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures. If income from the account, or from other foreign assets, was left off your returns, filing FBARs alone does not fix the problem. For US citizens living in the UK, the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures at https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/us-taxpayers-residing-outside-the-united-states are usually the route. You must meet the non-residency test, which for a US citizen means that in at least one of the most recent three years for which the return due date has passed you had no US abode and were physically outside the United States for at least 330 full days. You file delinquent or amended returns for the most recent three years, delinquent FBARs for the most recent six years, and a signed Form 14653 certifying that the failures were non-willful. Late FBARs filed under this route select 'Other' as the reason and state 'Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures' in the explanation. Eligible taxpayers who complete the procedures are not subject to FBAR penalties, failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties, accuracy-related penalties or information return penalties.

The Form 14653 narrative is where the London branch fact pattern helps a genuinely non-willful taxpayer, but only if it is told precisely. A specific, documented account of why you believed a US-branded account was domestic, supported by the bank's own terminology, dollar statements or US tax documents, is far more persuasive than a general statement that you were unaware of the rules. It must also be true for every year and every account covered.

What penalty applies to a non-willful missed FBAR after Bittner?

The non-willful FBAR penalty is a civil penalty with an upper limit and no minimum. The statutory base is $10,000 per violation, and the IRS Reference Guide explains that the upper limits are adjusted annually for inflation, with the current maximum set out in 31 CFR 1010.821. If there is reasonable cause for the failure and the balance is properly reported, no penalty is imposed. Willful violations are treated far more severely, with a maximum of the greater of the inflation-adjusted amount or 50 percent of the balance in the account at the time of the violation, and possible criminal exposure.

In Bittner v. United States, decided by the Supreme Court on 28 February 2023 (opinion at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1195_h3ci.pdf), the Court held that the non-willful penalty applies per report, not per account. A person who failed to file one FBAR listing five accounts faces at most one non-willful penalty for that year, not five. For private bank clients with several London-booked accounts, this matters a great deal: the maximum non-willful exposure scales with the number of missed years, not the number of accounts on each form. Bittner does not change the willful penalty and it does not create a safe harbour; it caps the non-willful arithmetic.

Worked scenario: a US private bank client in London

The following figures are an illustration only, not a real client. Assume an exchange rate of 1 GBP = 1.25 USD for simplicity; in a real filing each year's maximum value is converted at the Treasury rate for the last day of that calendar year. A US citizen has lived in London since 2017, files US returns every year, and banks with the private banking arm of a US banking group. The consolidated statement shows a relationship value of around $3 million. Account-level statements reveal four accounts.

Sterling current account booked at the London branch: highest balance in the year of 180,000 GBP, about $225,000 at the assumed rate. Foreign financial account.
US dollar call deposit booked at the London branch: highest balance of $95,000. Foreign financial account, even though it is denominated in dollars.
Custody and brokerage account booked with the group's US broker-dealer in New York, managed by the London team: highest value of $2.4 million. Not a foreign financial account.
Joint current account at a UK high-street bank: highest balance of 40,000 GBP, about $50,000 at the assumed rate. Foreign financial account.

The aggregate maximum value of the three foreign accounts is about $370,000, far above the $10,000 FBAR threshold, so an FBAR was due every year listing those three accounts. The New York custody account is not listed. For Form 8938, the two London branch accounts are generally excluded as accounts maintained by a US payer, and the high-street account alone, at about $50,000, is below the $200,000 and $300,000 thresholds for a single filer living abroad, so on these facts no Form 8938 was required. The client had filed nothing, having assumed that the bank relationship was 'American' and that the high-street account alone was too small to matter.

Interest on the London branch accounts had been reported to the IRS on a 1099 and included on the return, but interest on the high-street account had been omitted. Because unreported income exists, late FBARs alone would not complete the fix. Assuming the 330-day non-residency test is met and the conduct was non-willful, the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures would involve three years of amended returns picking up the missing interest, with any UK tax paid considered for foreign tax credit purposes, six years of FBARs listing the three foreign accounts, and a Form 14653 narrative explaining the branch misunderstanding. Had the high-street interest been reported correctly, the case could instead have been handled by late FBARs filed through BSA E-Filing with a reason for late filing. Either way, after Bittner the maximum non-willful exposure outside Streamlined would be counted per missed report, not per account.

Practical checklist for US citizens banking with a US group in London

Obtain the legal entity name and office address for every account, not just the brand name.
Ask the bank in writing which entity and which office maintains each cash, deposit, custody and brokerage account.
Request account-level monthly statements for every year that may be missing, and identify the maximum value of each account in its own currency.
Convert using the Treasury rate for the last day of each calendar year and record the source.
Include accounts where you hold signature authority only, such as company accounts you can operate.
Check Schedule B Part III answers against the FBAR position for every year.
Test Form 8938 separately, remembering that foreign branch accounts of US institutions are generally excluded but other UK assets are not.
Decide between late FBAR filing and the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures before filing anything, because filing FBARs alone does not cure unreported income.
Keep all records for at least five years from April 15 of the year following each reported year.

Why sequencing matters when you correct a missed FBAR

The failure mode we see most often is a rushed fix: a client learns about the London branch rule, files six years of FBARs the same week, and only later discovers that interest on one of the accounts, or gains on a UK fund, never reached the US return. At that point the FBARs are on file without the Streamlined certification that would have accompanied them, and the explanation for late filing may not match the story later told on Form 14653. Establishing the full picture first, including income, Form 8938 and Schedule B consistency, lets you choose one coherent route and file once.

The other common error runs the other way: filers who, once alerted, list every account on the consolidated statement, including US-booked custody accounts, on the FBAR. Over-reporting a domestic account is not a penalty issue, but it produces inaccurate filings, can confuse future-year reconciliations and sometimes leads the same filer to add those accounts to Form 8938 as well. Accuracy, not volume, is the goal.

If you bank with a US group in London and have never filed an FBAR, or have filed some years but not others, the rule is simpler than it first appears: the location of the account decides. Our team prepares late FBARs, Streamlined Foreign Offshore submissions and the related US returns for Americans in the UK, working from account-level evidence so that every form tells the same story.