The Blacktower Group obtains Cyprus licence

From pension transfers into beneficial QROPS to careful tax planning, expats have a lot to consider so that they can be financially confident and live their life abroad to the fullest.

But with Brexit looming, there are other considerations afoot. For example, should expats keep their British citizenship or apply for nationality in their new expat homeland? And according to new statistics, it appears that the Brexit referendum result has had a significant effect on the number of Britons gaining citizenship elsewhere in the EU.

Figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, show a substantial surge in the number of Britons acquiring citizenship in other EU countries between 2015 (2,478) and 2016, when the number more than doubled to 6,555 – that’s an increase of 165 percent. The figures include both those who chose to adopt dual citizenship, so that they kept their British citizenship, as well as those who renounced it.

Yet again what another country does or doesn’t do could have huge implications of the rest of Europe and the Western world. 

The clock is ticking for the Greek government to pay back the International Monetary Fund over €1bn (£720m) in loans in early May, as well as fund €1.4bn Treasury bill redemptions, and other major payments, including coupon payments on Greek government bonds.

It would appear that the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has been sidelined in Greek debt negotiation talks, but as Holly Cook from Morningstar says “The situation hasn’t changed that much, no matter who is actually doing the talking, they can’t stray too far from what their original mantra was, because their original mantra was all about anti-austerity… They’ve got a relatively tight margin for maneuver.”