Comment by JamesLeonis

The banks operate under a laundry list of laws outside of a criminal conviction, such as the Terrorist watch list as well as whole countries that are under US sanctions. US sanctions are a particularly large bite because the US will sanction you from the US financial system for working with the above, even if you are not under US jurisdiction.

This, of course, doesn't mention the all the reporting used for detecting tax evasion or money laundering.

US banks are absolutely a wing of the court by operating under the given rule of law, and through the US banks' worldwide influence this 'rule of law' gains a global prominence.