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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing new issues for American banking in Thailand. It seems like not a day goes by that it is not a bad day to be an American trying to bank outside of America but here we are. That said, I want to give a big thanks to one of our viewers and a very good friend of mine who actually sent me this. He lives up country and he sort of came upon this phenomenon on his own. It looks to be the real deal but for now it's sort of semi anecdotal evidence. In any event, let me get into it. 

Quoting directly: "Okay, after 2 days of misinformation from three Bangkok Branch offices, two different regional and Bangkok Bank HQ in Bangkok, here's the full story. The US Government, not the Thai Government, has directed all Thai Banks that have US citizens receiving US Government cheques - that's the key - receiving US Government cheques, to shut down all of the US expats' bank accounts abilities to make electronic transfers out of their accounts. Money can be electronically transferred in and you can check your account balance on your phone or the ATM, but you can no longer receive money from an ATM or transfer money from your phone. You now have to go to a bank in person, present your bank book and your passport to access your Bank Account. The local provincial (I'm going to redact the exact province) Bangkok Bank Office told me I was the fourth American today to come in telling them their electronic accounts were shut down. I told the teller I knew Americans who were doing banking business as usual. It will take some time for all the banks doing business with US citizens to lock down everyone. If they haven't gotten to you yet, they will in the near future. The Bangkok Bank office in (province redacted) wouldn't let me transfer money to my wife. They said my 17 year old account wasn't registered with the US Government; that I had to go to the (province redacted) branch and register it. That province said they registered that account with the US Government a few years ago." That province's branch said that. Quoting further: "This new requirement isn't fully understood right now by everyone and there is a lot of confusion. The Banks are in the process of educating their employees. I don't like it and I take it as another example of our Government giving us another kick in the (expletive deleted). I will leave it at that,but I will work around it." 

Okay again, first big data point here and I quote again "banks that have US citizens receiving US Government cheques", that seems to be the fundamental issue associated with this. So what does that mean? Well it means I think, those who are receiving like pensions from the US Government, I think it is going to result in those folks not being able to gain the kind of access or use their bank accounts the way they have in the past. 

Let's analogize this to something we have already dealt with and that is accounts that are set up to receive Social Security transfers directly into their account here in Thailand. We've seen a lot of those in the past. We know what those are. Same deal. You set up a specific kind of Bank Account wherein it allows you to bring in Social Security money, but then you cannot just electronically then transfer that out of the account. The only way to get the money is you have to show up in person. It's an anti-fraud provision primarily designed quite honestly so that some guy doesn't die in a guest house somewhere, and the people who were taking care of that guest house don't sort of just hide his body or something. This has happened by the way. Not necessarily here in Thailand but in the US there are tons of stories of this where they hide the body, keep getting the cheques coming in, keep cashing them, and keep living on the money. Again, very unlikely that would happen but that was a fraud prevention measure that was set up for Social Security. I don't know why they are doing this just for Government cheques generally but it's noteworthy to point out that this is not the Thai Government doing this. This seems to be a directive from agents, authorities whatever, back in the United States regarding Americans who are looking to bank here in the Kingdom of Thailand and receiving checks from the US Government in this location.