Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question are banks being sort of allowed by Thai Immigration to dictate policy?  I thought of making this video actually after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Just did my Retirement Visa extension, one year. Bangkok Bank have frozen 800,000 Baht of my funds for 3 months. I cannot touch it. Does not even show on the quick balance on my banking app. Also told me I must have 800,000 baht in my account 4 months before I apply for the next extension. Immigration says 2 months. It seems the bank is trying to take control." Yeah, I am really concerned about this, where the bank is saying this is what Immigration policy is. We have people we talk to at Immigration. They have told us many times; they are as angry about this in certain ways as anybody else.

Now to be clear, if you are asking for a service from any bank - I am not pointing out any particular bank - if you are asking for a service from them, and they have terms of that service, that's one thing. So if you say, "hey, I need an Affidavit as to my balance in order to deal with my Visa, can I please have that?" And they say, "yes, we will allow you to have that Affidavit but you need to keep your funds, reserves, sequester, whatever you want to call it, in our bank for this period of time before we will issue that Affidavit." I don't like that policy and frankly I think it is arbitrary and capricious, and I don't see where the banks get the right to do that, and also I think that the banks are forgetting that at the end of the day we are the customers. They don't get to dictate to us. I find that really concerning, this whole reversal, this inversion of the entire dynamic that somehow we are beholden to them. But okay, you are asking for something from them, and they are making a statement to a government entity. I can understand them setting their policy as, 'if you want our Affidavit, these are the terms". I don't know what is going on here where they are saying, well you also have to keep it here because we say so, and then meanwhile immigration is saying something totally different. 

Look at the end of the day, I have discussed this in other videos. I think unfortunately, and I am hoping this will turn around sooner rather than later, especially in light of what I think are probably possible upcoming events, although nothing is a foregone conclusion, but I think unfortunately Thailand has been influenced by frankly foreign interests, most notably the World Economic Forum as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the so-called OECD. I find this stuff really, really troubling and I question whether it is in the national interests of Thailand. 

Just sort of off topic for a second, I get into a lot of this in much more of a deeper dive in our paid new service. For those who are interested, you can email us: [email protected], and we can get you information on how to get on the email list for the paid new service. Also worth pointing out that we also provide in-depth analysis on expat land, how all these policies interact, my thoughts on prognosticating on how this is going to work in the future, so if you're interested in that check us out, [email protected]. While I'm talking my book too, I think it is probably worth pointing out, also my better half and I have set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace, breakfast anytime and American Diner style food. If you are interested in that, the link is in the description below; come on by and see us. 

That said, going back to this, at the end of the day I find this really concerning that again if you are asking for something from the bank and they have terms for that service; that is one thing. But where the bank is trying to say no, this is the policy and this is what we say Immigration needs, and Immigration is saying something different, that is no good. I have talked about the film Wag the Dog and basically it comes from a saying at the beginning of the movie where it says, "why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail." What happens if the tail is smarter than the dog? The tail would wag the dog. Well basically it is talking about the inversion of things, and nobody is talking about relative intelligence here. What we are talking about is sometimes things become what we would call back in Kansas, "bass ackwards," and that is what I am seeing in terms of this Banking Policy and Immigration Policy and how the banks are now trying to tell people what Immigration is going to be doing. That is just not the way it works. 

Again, this telltale signs of World Economic Forum influence and “public-private” partnerships and all of this stuff. It is just bad policy, and I think it is going to lead to really bad outcomes for Thailand as people start seriously rethinking banking here as well as even being here on a long-term basis and bringing their money here to both retire and invest here in the Kingdom of Thailand.