From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 95 15:24:37 PDT
To: aba@atlas.ex.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Zimmermann legal fund
Message-ID: <199507302224.PAA10093@blob.best.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 02:23 PM 7/30/95 EDT, nsb@nsb.fv.com wrote:
> However, it is worth noting that we DO have non-US sellers already. 
> Remember, the requirement is not that you be in the US, but rather than you
> have an account in a US bank.  This is not all that hard for a non-US
> citizen to do **IF** you can show up physically at a US bank.

Many years ago I obtained a US account by mail
from overseas, using cheques made out to me from 
US sources.

I did this with the bank of America.  No big problem.  But as
time went by, their ability to handle financial events that were
out of the ordinary deteriorated spectacularly.

Perhaps this is partly because things tightened up, but
it is also that most US banks have developed a monolithic 
and obstructionist bureaucracy that is incapable of handling 
any event that is out of the ordinary.

> What we'd really hoped to have up and running by now, as a short-term
> expedient, was an expedited mechanism whereby non-US people could open
> accounts at a US bank by mail, without the physical presence.  This turns
> out to be contrary to a lot of established procedures in the US banking
> world,

By and large, over the past twenty years, there has been a 
decisive move towards financial management by guys who could 
not find their ass with both hands.


US banks simply do not work well for international transactions.

The problem is not so much money laundering laws as intolerable
ignorance, provincialism, and incompetence.

If you insist that international transactions be mediated through 
US banks, you are cutting your throat.

Go look for banks that are truly international.  You will not
find them in America.





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