Comment by JamesLeonis

I've talked about this before [0], but tl;dr - American banks operate worldwide, and since they are subject to US laws, worldwide banking is de facto under US jurisdiction.

> 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.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28820330