Today I wasted yet another half an hour providing very personal details to a financial institution to justify continued access to MY funds. All in the name of Anti Money Laundering (AML) – that compliance procedure that has little provable results despite its enormous costs but most certainly pushes people out of the banking system.
The compliance cost to banks ($274 billion annually) is more than a hundred times the money recovered by AML. Imagine the true cost if you counted the time individuals and businesses spend globally. It’s one thing if AML actually worked. But it’s ineffective.
In Europe, people migrated from using banks for international payments to using the Wise or Revolut apps. They’re far cheaper and less hassle. Or they used to be until they were leaned on to impose AML more strictly. Their AML procedures are now at least as aggressive as the banks.
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