Pensions administration company Equiniti has announced contingency plans for overseas pensioners in Greece.

The firm, which manages the payments of over 60,000 expat pensioners, has put the measures into place in case Greece exits the Euro.

The company said that in the event of Greece changing their currency it is likely that there would be a complete closedown of their banking infrastructure resulting in a freezing of any money movements, for a period of anything up to two weeks.

This could affect some or all of the pensioners who reside in Greece, all of whom are currently paid in the Euro.

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Equiniti said it has put in place the following processes in the event that Greece exits the Euro:

• To support the pensioners and find payment solutions, given the exact nature of the exit;
• To ensure actions are taken in priority order (determined depending on the specific circumstances) to ensure the minimum of disruption to pensioner’s payments;
• To minimise the amount of pension schemes / pensioners that could be caught up in the international banking system for the duration of any such incident;
• To maintain fully auditable bank account reconciliations to ensure all pension scheme monies can be accounted for.

Andy Brown, operations director at Equiniti International Payments, said: “We have contingency plans in place for all likely issues relating to problems with paying expat pensioners.
“Whilst at this stage we do not know whether Greece will exit the Eurozone, it is important for us to identify the specific risks and plan accordingly to ensure the minimum of disruption to pensioners and their pension schemes.”