On Mon, 31 Jul 1995, Enzo Michelangeli wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jul 1995, Mike Bailey wrote:
The US banking industry has gone to the dogs. The day a non-US bank offers an account that can be accessed over the net will be the day I close my US accounts.
Interesting idea ...
1st question or thing I would want to be certain of is the stability of the currency of the realm so to speak. I wouldn't want to bank in a country that had a weak currencey (sp) or was subject to roller coaster economics.
How could it be worse than with the U.S. of A.?? ;-)
Seriously: you may bank in US Dollars (or other major currencies) in many countries, including all the offshore banking centres. Limited amounts of cash may be withdrawn using ATM dispensers, against a fee of two or three USD per operation; for larger amounts, you may ask them to wire money by SWIFT, Telex or bank drafts to other banks or genric payees. For such operations, most large banks accept instructions by snail mail, and sometimes by fax (if the customer signs a letter of indemnity exempting the bank from liabilities in case of forgeries). Sadly, AFAIK no bank is accepting digitally encrypted and signed e-mail instructions, and issuing digitally encrypted and signed receipts.
I'm feel that this type of banking is just around the corner with the coming tidal wave of internet based commerce. My primary concern would be something along this senario ... I open an account with U.S. $$ in a foreign bank who uses francs (don't flame the denonimation or the choice this is just an exammple ;-) ... a month later the franc loses 20 % of it's value as compared to the U.S. dollar. If I close out my account would I not lose 20% of my money because when the money was deposited it was credited to the account in francs ... and when it is withdrawn it converted back to $$ at the current conversion rate ? Maybe this was answered in the previous reply if so call me *thick* if not call me *paranoid*. -Mike ************************************************************************** * Personal internet account, opinions and ideas do not reflect those * * of my employer * * Mike Bailey (hm)214-252-3915 * * email bailey@computek.net (wk)214-456-4510 * * * * "Remember you can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish -Joe Walsh" * * http://www.computek.net/public/bailey/ * **************************************************************************