Comment by miohtama
1 year ago
In the EU, there is a right for a bank account. But this right does not cover anti-money laundering excuses to debank a person.
1 year ago
In the EU, there is a right for a bank account. But this right does not cover anti-money laundering excuses to debank a person.
So it’s effectively a jail sentence, and that’s fine for people who break social rules, but we have built up a whole justice system for applying them. When government pretends taking away your bank is anything less serious, they just want to sidestep due process.
It's not government taking it away. It's a bank taking it away because they do not want to spend time and money to resolve the situation. The legal risk is high where as there is very little upside for retaining the customer relationship.
So what would happen if were in that situation and then went to another bank?
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There is a right for a personal bank account only.
Which is already a big improvement over the situation in America.
Being cut from the savings/investment/loan system would certainly suck and be unfair if you did nothing wrong, but much less than losing your basic bank account. That's where you receive/cash your pay, tax refunds, any government benefits, write checks (for things that are still paid that way by default), make transfers, etc.
That's true, and it's certainly better than nothing, but engaging in some legal business activity is also one of the basic personal freedoms in the Western value system, one that is trampled on very badly by the recent rise of draconian banking regulations. For businesses, the banking situation in the EU is actually worse than the US right now. It depends on the country, but in some places small businesses basically have to go begging around, hoping that some bank will take on the "compliance risk" of opening an account for them.
I disagree. Bank accounts aren’t the solution; regulating the end use cases (ie businesses that don’t accept cash) is a much better option for society.
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