At 10:23 AM 8/7/94 -0700, Eric Hughes wrote:

It might be, but remember that in making the case to business, the financial privacy, such as it exists today, is _not_ "at any time, for any reason". It might be in the future, but then you're making a perceived-weaker argument.

Ah, my Burroughsian hyperbole strikes again... Gotta get that AJ subroutine fixed...

It might be the threat of international deployment and regulatory arbitrage which brings them around, and fires up the lobbying apparatus on our side of the issue.

With that in mind, shouldn't you have your first conference in London, invite a bunch of US bankers, and raise the issue explicitly? As soon as you can get different countries competing for revenue, you're more than halfway home.

One could accuse you wanting to get a "deductable junket" to Europe here ;-), and you might be right about doing it in London, but it seems to me that to present a xenophobic argument to the American banking community, it's best do to that on American soil. Without sounding too parochial, it's entirely possible to incite greed in the international markets with leaving home. I really want to get regulators into the same room, also. The site I have in mind is six blocks from the Federal Reserve Building in Boston. Boston is, you understand, the fulcrum of the universe, even if the long end of the lever finishes up somewhere about Berkeley...

On the other hand if those reporting requirements are frictionless, they don't *need* to fight it, do they...

Nope. And remember, the divide-and-conquer is likely already starting. The first bank to provide FINCEN with a live transaction feed will likely see some regulatory hurdles fall, no?

JargonQuery(FINCEN?) I'm having fun now. Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923