HSBC Restricts Withdrawals of Depositors

[JohnyMac]

In short, the HSBC bank down the street from your house/business is restricting cash withdrawals to $10K without explanation and filling out paperwork.

Here is a short excerpt:

...HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November for their own good: "We ask our customers about the purpose of large cash withdrawals when they are unusual... the reason being we have an obligation to protect our customers, and to minimise the opportunity for financial crime..."

HSBC Restricts Large Cash Withdrawals
Is this a start of a new trend world-wide?

[crudos]

I am willing to test this at my local bank, if someone will give me a large sum of money to start with. 

Joking aside, probably a good idea to keep on eye on your local banks to see if they start following suit.

[JohnyMac]

Just a side note: I took out a large sum of money in mid-summer as I wanted to pay for what I was buying in cash. The usual friendly ladies at the teller window (s) turned from friendly to not so and actually started to quiz me. I say started as the look on my face must have been pretty bad.

The head teller came over and took over. She had me step to the side away from the other customers and proceeded to fill out paperwork and then count out my cash.

What I took away from what happened and what you may too, is that they didn't understand why I would want that kind of cash, they were obviously coached to quiz me, realized by my body language to "not go there" and in the end it was not an issue.

I wonder how many folks will get similar treatment at "their" home town bank? I wonder if they will fold under the scrutiny of the employees of the bank they hired to secure their saving's?

PS: The money is not in my house - It was used to buy something and is long gone 

[Grudgie]

Why is it such a taboo to have large amounts of cash? When you whip out a thousand people look at you like you just said you rape kindergardeners. My bank is always profesional and friendly when dealing with my requests but I will soon close out the rest of my account nonetheless. I'm getting out of the ponzi scheme before it ends.

[JohnyMac]

Good for you Grudgie! Make sure you do keep one account open though with a minimal amount in it ($100- or so) so you can cash checks and use for credit checks as need be. Even if you are not planning on buying a vehicle on credit today, you may change your mind five years down the road.  ;-)

[Well-Prepared Witch]

Just a word of advice - if you are strictly cash and only use your checking account when needed, any large deposits can cause just as big a hassle as large withdrawals.  In addition, if you're planning on getting a mortgage, start socking your money into your account about six months and try not to have any large deposits (or a pattern of smaller deposits that adds up over a month or two to a large amount) the last two months before you apply.  Otherwise you'll have to document where the deposits came from and it'll be a red flag. Just a helpful hint.

[JohnyMac]

GREAT advise Wellie - Thank you! 

[JohnyMac]

Now a similar Russian restriction as HSBC. What do you think is going on? Do you think this will spread west to the EU? The UK? The USofA?

It would appear the fears of a global bank run are spreading. From HSBC's limiting large cash withdrawals (for your own good) to Lloyds ATMs going down, Bloomberg reports that 'My Bank' - one of Russia's top 200 lenders by assets - has introduced a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week. While the Ruble has been losing ground rapidly recently, we suspect few have been expecting bank runs in Russia. Russia sovereign CDS had recently weakned to 4-month wides at 192bps.