Comment by xorcist

I have lived in several European countries but not in the US. Maybe it is different there. The only clue in the post was HSBC, which is a British bank. This is why discussing this is so hard.

The European Union has tried to create a pan-European banking market for a long time without success. Banks are still a national business, even if banks themselves operate internationally you always do business with their local prescence. In theory you could keep your accounts in another country, in practice that is a massive headache.