-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Thursday, December 07, 2000 10:09 AM The Following Was Transmitted: <snip>

My original point, possibly taken too literally at the outset here, is that in most jurisdictions it is more or less impossible to get a US bank account without a social security number, <snip>

It is in fact required of US entities.

I am not, of course, a banking lawyer, but I certainly hang out with enough of those folks these days, I've certainly had enough of this stuff shoved into my head over the years, and, I expect that to get a bank account without a Social Security number in most states of the US, you probably need to prove that you are indeed a foreign national, *and* provide a valid passport as proof of same, and that, frankly, the passport number would be used *somewhere* as a proxy for SSN where possible.

There are two issues here. If you are a non-resident alien (an "NRA" - I've always loved that term) you can sign a W-8 stating that you are an NRA and that you are not required to have a TIN or SSN. That takes care of you from that angle and by definition you don't need a number. The more difficult element is the "know your customer" rule where such a signing doesn't really prove anything. At the end of the day, the bank - and more specifically an individual banker is personally liable (the "banker goes to jail" principal) - is required both to assert that they know the customer and in the event of untoward activity, which is rather broadly defined, report such activity to the authorities if it is discovered or !!! should have been discovered !!! - This latter principal IMO is the one that creates the extreme level of conservative behavior in the US. <snip> Personal comments only. ===================== Frank O. Trotter, III President - everbank.com Spank your banker and come on over to http://www.everbank.com everbank is a Division of Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 6.5.2 iQA/AwUBOi+9w6c6Jcu2sioFEQJJTQCgweMpU4qyMn1cDcdh4RCPjazTZVMAnRdP KCE6CTUNoy8UyW+Uw7kpbSe6 =xFsz -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'