Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Embassy letters in connection with banking. What are we even talking about here? Yet another data point that frankly makes this whole morass of analysis on this whole situation involving banking here in Thailand even more opaque. I thought of making this video after reading a recent email to us, quoting directly: "Thanks Benjamin, have you any idea of what the government is actually looking for to allow" - I am going to say the Big Bank - "to unfreeze my account? The bank branch in Nakorn Sawan told me to go to the US Embassy and get a "Certificate of Residency" and visit the bank branch in Bangkok to get my account unfrozen. I made an appointment with the Embassy and was told "we don't do that" and was directed to Thai Immigration. Before continuing the wild goose chase, I stopped at the Big Bank where the Visa Department, I think they meant; I don't know if they meant Visa Department, whatever, where the Visa Department helped me open my account and got completely different answers. They showed me an example of a South Korean letter from their Embassy, and also a letter from a bank certifying the customer was Swiss and held an account with the bank. I, the US Embassy and the Big Bank seem to all have no idea what the government really wants." Well one thing to understand is look different Embassies are willing to issue different types of documentation in communication with entities here in Thailand. 

I've discussed this in other videos, mostly pertaining to the so-called Income Affidavit for Retirement Visas. That used to be a possibility to get an Income Affidavit notarized by the US Embassy and then legalize that at Ministry of Foreign Affairs - I am specifically talking about the US Embassy now - and then legalize that at Ministry of Foreign Affairs for usage at Thai Immigration to extend or obtain a Thai Retirement Visa; basically it was an Affidavit as to one’s financial position. Now as I discussed in many prior videos at the time and I was actually burned in the comments for bringing it up and later was vindicated; it was the truth. Basically what happened was the Thai Government came to the Americans and said, "are you verifying the authenticity of the statements made in these notarized documents?" and the Embassy said, "hey we are not talking about anything having to do with the veracity of the statements, we are just notarizing the signature." So the Thais basically said, "hey if you are not attesting to the veracity, there was kind of an agreement made. I think it was said, “can please not do that” and also basically the Thais stopped legalizing it as well. But long story short, those Affidavits stopped being issued because they weren't considered appropriate as a legally certifying document I guess would be the best way to put it. But that said, there are other Embassies. Certain European countries, Embassies from those countries were continuing to issue affidavits. I think even the Canadians would issue a certain type of affidavit depending on what kind of income you were talking about, and I think recently they discontinued that as well. That being said, different Embassies do actually perform different functions and are willing to issue different types of documentation. There is no one-size-fits-all when you are looking at this stuff. That said, quoting further: "I called my US Bank, and it is going to take 3 days for me to receive an email with the document stating that the account where I sent wire transfers from is my account. Please share this with your audience that nobody at the bank or Embassy seem to actually understand what the government wants or why it actually decided that "guilty until proven innocent" is a great way to govern." 

Well as I have discussed, this doesn't appear to be directly a government initiative. As discussed in prior videos, we have contacts with immigration and they are like, "why is the bank doing this? we are not asking for this much." but they are doing this four-month freeze before they will issue an affidavit and things; it is not necessarily the Government that is doing this. 

As I have discussed in other videos, I have my own theories, most notably I think it is the undue foreign influence of the likes of the so-called OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). I think that unfortunately, the past government was heavily influenced by the World Economic Forum. I am very hopeful that this incoming Government which I think, as of the time of this video, the Cabinet is being installed or is just yet to be installed, but we should see it installed very, very shortly. So this Government is just now coming into being and I am hoping we will see at least some of this stuff at the very least, hopefully all of it, but some of this stuff reversed, because I think it is bad policy. As I have discussed in other videos, I also kind of view it as something akin to effectively a foreign attack on Thailand from utilizing financial weaponry if you will, to sort of undermine the confidence in Thailand's economy and financial system. Now some could view that as a bit of a logical stretch. Based on the facts and the data points we have right now, I don't think that is a stretch much at all. 

That being said, the point of this video is look, different banks are asking for different things. Depending on your nationality, it may or may not be possible to get documentation pertaining to banking. If you are having problems with banking, it may not be a terrible idea to contact us. We have been assisting a lot of folks with both dealing with their own account, assisting them in transferring money to other accounts, getting new bank accounts open at banks that aren't quite so, I don't know what the right word is, persnickety if you will, regarding these matters. I maybe would use the word Orwellian and Kafkaesque in many ways, but again we have had some success there. That said, we will certainly be keeping people updated on this channel as this situation evolves.