Do they support SWIFT? i.e., can you wire money to them from a US account? Most every bank can use SWIFT ( Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication ) and usually their 'numbers' are on their web site or readily available from their branches.
Check out:
[https://en.wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Society_for_Worldwide_Interbank_Financial_Telecommunication]
[http://www.swift(dot)com/index.page?lang=en]
Basically it is a secure e-mail system using ISO formats. One of my students worked for a small bank here in VN and her employer was not a member.
As you might expect, the US has an unending interest in this traffic - Freedom Fighters sending money - and it allegedly hacked the system before it was granted official access. SWIFT has computers in Europe and the USA.
If you are a US citizen you can avoid the IRS reporting mechanism by a foreign bank ...
I'd read somewhere recently that any US citizen opening an account in a foreign bank is subect (sic) to reporting to the IRS, and for that reason, some banks will not allow US citizens to open accounts. ...
It must be 'heart-warming' to know that your government cares so much about you it tracks you, until they get a verified Death Certificate or have attained the age on 100 years.
For some reason Congress feels you have to donate to the US of A so long as you are a citizen and have income. Apparently, last year was a bumper year for renouncing citizenship - all such events have to be published as the public record.
Why I have to pay a tithe to Uncle Sam on income earned, and spent, AND taxed solely in another country beats me.
To 'encourage' US citizens to file returns, etc., it requires foreign banks with offices in the USA to file information about all Americans doing business with them. Obviously, for some banks, this paperwork burden exceeds the value of having Americans do business with them.
The HSBC has closed many accounts of Muslims, and Muslim organisations, for this very reason and the burden of handling security inquiries.
Small banks, however, can't afford to maintain offices in the USA so they use larger institutions to handle their needs ... for a fee, of course.
So there's the choices. Bank with a small bank or 'fess up and pay the tithe. Or use the wife's name to open a joint account.
I have more than just a US passport, so I never travel on it, after all, when you renew it, the government gets all your travel 'itineraries'. It also collects airline manifests from around the world. All flights leaving Bangkok, even regional ones, are copied to the US, for example. And where are three of the largest reservation systems based?
Of course, if you are an Apple or a Dell or an Amazon you can afford to hire smart lawyers and accountants to use the 'Double Irish With A Dutch Sandwich' - the tax avoidance technique employed by corporations, involving the use of a combination of Irish and Dutch subsidiary companies to shift profits to low or no tax jurisdictions. The double Irish with a Dutch sandwich technique involves sending profits first through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company and finally to a second Irish company head-quartered in a tax haven.
Ain't maths wonderful.
