A rant of fiscal insanity

Scrivener of Doom · Jun 22, 2014

was said:
As someone who used to work for a major bank, not this specific one, I can tell you that most of these policies are not for legal reasons. It's simply an attempt to get you to open an account with them. The personal bankers perfomance reviews and bonuses are based upon the number of accounts they open. I can't tell you the number of times I had to help senior citizens close checking accounts when they realized they had 3 or 4 extra they didn't remember and were accruing fees on. It's one of the reasons I no longer work there.

That's closer to the truth than the anti-money laundering argument.

MarkB said:
On its own, probably not - but it's an easy matter to split a larger sum, then spend a little time depositing it piecemeal over days or weeks, if doing so will keep you under the radar.

No it isn't.

Australia has one of the most sophisticated anti-money laundering regimes in the world and this sort of behaviour is picked up by the software used by the government bureau that targets money laundering. Australia is not a police state so you can guarantee that if it has this sort of software, the US will have the same or better.

That's why Umbran's locks on houses = small cash deposits breaks down: the software the authorities use can monitor this sort of behaviour... which is why  @was  's post was actually a more accurate assessment of the truth.

Janx said:
everybody knows you ask the former drug addict magazine solicitor on how to launder money!

I don't think crooks launder money in banks. They use dry cleaners and other cash-predominant businesses. Didn't you guys watch Breaking Bad?

Laundering money through cash is one of the most inefficient ways of laundering money. The big players use offshore banking facilities, and I am not talking about the myth of Swiss bank accounts (Swiss bank accounts are nothing but a red flag: never use one).

However, drug dealers need to launder cash and that's where casinos and racetracks come in... as does the physical shipment of cash to friendlier jurisdictions. For the USA, you have the Caymans et al only a short flight/boat trip away and real money laundering of cash involves smuggling said cash to places like the Caymans. Once it's in a bank of any sort, it's really easy to start moving the money around and having it return to source a lot cleaner than when it started.

But stopping a deposit of USD500 in cash? Don't believe the rhetoric. It's complete BS.

Cergorach · Jun 22, 2014

I worked for a subsidiary of a large Dutch Bank for ~7 years there was a time when physical money deposits and withdrawals were often done at a counter instead of an automated machine. That cost a lot of money and created risks. What happened was that there was a large concentrated effort to actively discourage folks to use the manned counters. Folks could only do this at certain counters, there were a lot less of those counters (thus even longer waiting periods), a lot of offices closed, you wanted to use a manned counter there was a fee associated with it.

Also what Banks tell their customers isn't always true (nor always legal), I'll even go as far as saying that even the people working at the counters are also not always told the truth, so what they tell you might actually be what they belief is the truth... I remember it even going so far that the bank required a copy of a customers ID papers, while it was forbidden by law to do so at the time, if you didn't comply the bank wouldn't service you. That ended up being a right mess ;-)

And it might even be an anti money laundering scheme that some enforcement agency thought up or someone at the riskassessment or compliance department. Not everything a 'bank' thinks up is smart, but on the other hand I know that there are a lot of models being used in the background that don't make sense at first glance, but can be backed up by statistics (and at the end of the ride with results).

In the end it's as simple as going to your own bank, deposit the money and transfer it from one bank to another, maybe use a little less cash...

A rant of fiscal insanity

Scrivener of Doom

Adventurer

Cergorach

The Laughing One

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