> The UK made it legally obligatory for banks to offer "basic bank accounts" to everyone in 2016, and the sky has not fallen).
This did not avoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage_Coutts_bank_scand...
However there's a vital layer of ambiguity in that story which made it more confusing for everyone involved: Coutts is a long standing "private bank" which makes a point of not serving everyone, only HNWIs, and Farage fell into both the "not rich enough" and "too politically exposed" categories.
> The current situation in the US is shameful, and while part of that shame should fall on the politicians and regulators, much of it rightly falls on the banks themselves
Like the lack of consumer protection and public safety in the US, at some point you have to accept that the public are also ultimately responsible through the ballot box. US financial control systems are driven firstly by the catch-all "war on terror", which since 9/11 has been used to justify any and all authoritarianism with public support, war on drugs ditto (despite state level legalization!), and thirdly evangelical support for Operation Choke Point.
This did not avoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage_Coutts_bank_scand...
However there's a vital layer of ambiguity in that story which made it more confusing for everyone involved: Coutts is a long standing "private bank" which makes a point of not serving everyone, only HNWIs, and Farage fell into both the "not rich enough" and "too politically exposed" categories.
> The current situation in the US is shameful, and while part of that shame should fall on the politicians and regulators, much of it rightly falls on the banks themselves
Like the lack of consumer protection and public safety in the US, at some point you have to accept that the public are also ultimately responsible through the ballot box. US financial control systems are driven firstly by the catch-all "war on terror", which since 9/11 has been used to justify any and all authoritarianism with public support, war on drugs ditto (despite state level legalization!), and thirdly evangelical support for Operation Choke Point.