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by gamblor956 3820 days ago
There's no way in hell the CEO/owner of a business would spend 1.5 hour on the phone with an account manager, setting up the account.

That's actually a legal requirement in many countries, including the US--either the CEO or CFO of the company must directly deal with a financial institution when setting up a financial institution account (i.e., bank account--note that Paypal is a registered financial institution in nearly all of the jurisdictions in which it operates). My clients run into this all the time. It's a hassle, but it's one you simply have to accept as the cost of doing business in the big leagues.

Want PayPal to transfer british pound to an non-british bank-account, then prepare for a world of pain

Legally, yes. Because British law has rules about this, and as a financial institution Paypal is required to follow those rules. Those rules are deliberately onerous because the type of transaction you are describing was once widely used in tax evasion and money laundering schemes.
1 comments
MitchellKnight 3820 days ago
> That's actually a legal requirement in many countries, including the US--either the CEO or CFO of the company must directly deal with a financial institution when setting up a financial institution account (i.e., bank account--note that Paypal is a registered financial institution in nearly all of the jurisdictions in which it operates). My clients run into this all the time. It's a hassle, but it's one you simply have to accept as the cost of doing business in the big leagues.

What U.S. law is this?

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gamblor956 3818 days ago
As we're talking about cross-border bank accounts, the Patriot Act, when applied to foreign persons (individuals or corporations) attempting to open US bank accounts.

Also, FATCA. Though FATCA technically only applies to the financial institutions and not their customers, its information gathering requirements have the same effect as requiring bank customers to disclose certain information.

There are state level laws that may govern US persons attempting to open US bank accounts, both those vary by state.

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