Send money to Italy from Canada
Grey pays out in euro into an Italian bank account, reached by IBAN. Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banco BPM and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti are supported. The rate and the fee are both on screen before you confirm, and confirming fixes the rate. Nobody in Italy has to open anything.
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This corridor is about estates, property and parents
The Italian community in Canada is one of the oldest and one of the largest. In Woodbridge, along St. Clair West, in Hamilton and in Windsor, the families who arrived in the fifties and sixties are now third and fourth generation. Very few of them send a monthly allowance to Italy, because there is rarely anyone left in Italy who depends on one.
What there is instead is property, paperwork and elderly relatives. A house in Calabria or Abruzzo that three cousins inherited between them. A comune asking for property tax on a place nobody has lived in since 1998. A notary in Bari who has to be paid before a succession file can close. An aunt in Molise whose care is shared between the relatives who stayed and the ones who left.
These payments are irregular and usually exact. Somebody has quoted a euro figure and that figure has to arrive. Grey converts into euro once, shows the rate and the fee before you confirm, and credits the Italian account from the IBAN you enter.
Three steps to a euro payout in Italy
Sign up
Opening a Grey account is free and takes roughly five minutes. You verify yourself with a valid identity document. Nothing has to be notarized and nothing is mailed.
Fund
You hold a balance in US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, in pounds or in euro. It is funded by money arriving from a client, an employer or a transfer you make.
Send
Type the Italian IBAN exactly as the notary, the comune or your relative wrote it, read the rate and fee, and confirm. Transfers typically arrive within minutes.
What it costs to move euro to Italy
On an estate or a property payment, the euro figure is usually fixed by somebody else. A notary's invoice. A tax notice from the comune. A builder's quote for a roof in the paese. You are not choosing how much to send, you are trying to make a precise number arrive.
That is a different problem from a monthly allowance, and it is why a rate fixed at confirmation matters so much here. You can work backwards from the euro figure you owe, instead of guessing, sending short and then sending again to cover the gap.
The rate you see is the rate applied
Grey shows the live rate for the conversion into euro on the confirmation screen. Confirming fixes it. The rate does not move while the payment is in flight and it is not adjusted after settlement.
For anyone handling an Italian succession from Ontario, that is the difference between giving the notary a number and giving them an approximation. The euro amount you were shown is the euro amount the Italian account receives.
Grey next to a wire from a Canadian bank
An international wire from RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank or National Bank of Canada is still how most families handle an Italian notary's bill, and it is the part of the process they complain about afterwards. The wire fee is charged whatever the size of the payment, the exchange rate is applied by the bank rather than shown to you beforehand, and correspondent banks along the way can reduce the euro that finally lands. Grey converts once, shows the rate and the fee before confirmation, and pays into the Italian IBAN.
What the account in Italy receives
Euro, credited to the Italian account like any other transfer. The recipient does not register with Grey and does not collect anything in person.
Italian banks
Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banco BPM and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti are supported. The IBAN is the routing detail, and it is worth checking character by character.
How quickly it lands
Sent from a funded balance, transfers to Italian accounts typically arrive within minutes. Where the Italian bank is on SEPA Instant, settlement is quicker again.
If they also use Grey
A cousin in Italy who has Grey can be paid by GreyTag. That transfer is free, instant, and needs no IBAN at all.
How money reaches your Grey account
The balance is funded in its own currency, never in Canadian dollars. Three routes cover almost everyone on this corridor.
A client pays you
Consultants and contractors in Canada can have clients pay straight into their Grey account details, which is often why the money for an Italian bill is already sitting there.
An employer pays you
Salary from a company outside Canada can land in the balance directly, in the currency it is paid in.
You move it in yourself
A transfer from an account you already hold abroad, made whenever it suits you rather than on the day the Italian payment falls due.
Because a funded balance can sit untouched, families working through a succession often fund the account early in the process and send once the notary finally confirms the figure.
What Canadians actually send to Italy for
Settling an estate
Succession files on a house or a plot of land, where a notary, a surveyor and a translator all have to be paid in euro before anything can be sold or transferred.
Keeping a property going
Municipal property tax, a share of a roof or a boiler, utilities on a house in the paese that stands empty for ten months of the year.
Care for an elderly relative
A contribution towards a carer, a residence or medical costs for an aunt or uncle who stayed, split between relatives on both sides of the Atlantic.
Professional bills
Lawyers, accountants, surveyors and translators working on Italian paperwork for a Canadian family, invoicing in euro and expecting payment to an Italian IBAN.
Four reasons account for most of the traffic on this corridor, and none of them is a monthly allowance.
Reasons this corridor suits Grey
A Grey account is free, opens in about five minutes and needs a valid identity document.
Italian paperwork moves on its own schedule. Most people on this corridor open the account while the file is still with the notary, so that when a euro figure finally lands in an email the payment takes five minutes rather than an afternoon at a branch.
FAQs
Can I pay an Italian notary's invoice from Canada through Grey?
Yes. You send euro to the notary's IBAN like any other account, and the euro figure is shown before you confirm.
Which Italian banks does Grey pay into?
Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banco BPM and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti are supported. The IBAN routes the payment to the right account.
Can I pay property tax on a house in Calabria this way?
You can pay whoever holds the Italian account collecting it. Grey credits euro to the IBAN you enter and shows the amount first.
The account belongs to my uncle, not to me. Is that a problem?
No. Transfers go to whichever Italian account you name, and the person receiving needs nothing from Grey beyond that account.
Is my money converted into euro twice on the way to Italy?
No. Italy is in the eurozone, so there is one conversion into euro and euro is what the Italian bank credits.
How fast does euro reach an Italian bank account?
Sent from a funded balance, euro typically reaches an Italian account within minutes, faster still where SEPA Instant is available.
I need an exact euro amount to arrive. Can Grey do that?
The euro figure your recipient receives is shown before you confirm, and the rate is fixed at that point rather than afterwards.
Can I hold euro in Grey until the succession file closes?
Yes. A funded euro balance can sit untouched for as long as the Italian paperwork takes, then go out in one payment.
Does my cousin in Italy need to open a Grey account?
No. She receives an ordinary euro credit in her Italian bank account, the same as any domestic transfer she would normally get.
Can I send Canadian dollars to Italy with Grey?
No. Grey holds no Canadian dollar balance. You hold US dollars, pounds or euro and convert into euro when you send.
Is Grey a bank if it credits euro to an Italian IBAN?
No. Grey is a financial technology firm. The euro reaches your Italian account through licensed banking partners and shows as a normal credit.
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