[denton-scratch]

The USA has a recent history of imposing extraterritorial legislation. USAians are apparently unwelcome at UK banks; transferring money from the UK to the USA risks unwelcome attention from the IRS, even if you've done nothing wrong.

This damages US businesses more than it does overseas businesses. Sure, UK banks lose some US customers. But actually they didn't have to lose those customers; all they were required to do was exercise enhanced diligence over the sources of funds transferred to USA. The UK banks chose to eject those US customers, because it was cheaper.

I don't know what to do about this. I think US legislators like extraterritorial legislation because it looks strong, and because it has a certain flavour of "fixing the world". Most USAians don't have overseas financial interests, so aren't impacted. But, for example, my US half-sister declined her share of my late father's legacy, because importing it to the USA would have been too costly as well as too much hassle.