Any interest in an offshore bank which accepts & exchanges Bitcoins?

[DeathAndTaxes]

I have been talking with an offshore bank in the British Virgin Islands about possibly accepting bitcoins.  They are not surprisingly uninterested however the discussions were useful because they did provide information on forming a finance company in the BVI.  The finance company could open an account with the offshore bank and create sub-accounts for clients of the finance company.   The finance company would be able to accept bitcoins and fiat currency deposits and offer currency (including Bitcoin) exchange services.

To clarify is this wouldn't be a "bank" in the traditional sense.  It wouldn't offer loans, offer interest, or engage in fractional reserve banking.  It would merely provide demand (deposit) accounts.

Potential account options:
* online banking with hardware 2 factor authentication.
* irreversible account to account transfers.
* debit card with ATM access.
* bank wires to "onshore" banks (financial privacy protected incoming and outgoing bank wires use a single-use transaction ID not an account number or account holder's name).
* access to offshore brokerage services.

The account to account transfer option (initiated by the sender) is interesting because they are irreversible and that could form the basis for a secure person to person trading/conversion.  As an example Joe needs 1000 BTC and Jane is willing to sell them.  Jane sends coins to the finance company acting as an escrow agent (or even a third party escrow agent).   Joe transfers $10,000 to Jane's sub-account and coins are released to Joe from escrow.

Just an idea at this point.  Comments?

[1714823763]

1714823763

[JackH]

Going to be harder then what you think. In these offshore destinations you have a lot of services that sometime are too good to be true. And they actually are too good to be true, because when dealing with financial institutions or becoming one yourself, you are looking at several hundreds of thousands of Euro's to create a structure. And guess what, you are signing up to all the regulations that the central bank or the financial authority of that area has in place.

What this will do is just to create a quicker bridge between BTC and Cards, but if it looks too much like money laundry it will be shut down. Remember Epassporte?

[Meatpile]

Fees will be outrageous.

And there isnt enough bitcoin circulating to buy much uranium and dirty bombs yet to really justify such an expensive thing.

[Bigpiggy01]

Belize might also be of interest.

[MemoryDealers]

I'm %100 sure this kind of thing would be hugely popular!
They should do it ASAP!


There is obviously a huge demand for bridges to be built between the traditional banking world, and the Bitcoin world.

There are already talks about a similar thing happening in HK.

[freetx]

I think this is an interesting idea, however there are going to be some caveats.

One thing to note is that KYC (Know Your Client) regulations are going to mandate that you get all pertinent information on account holders (2 forms of ID, proof of residency, etc).

Anything that touches the "regulated" financial system, will also have to follow all those regulations.

This is going to limit the usefulness of this service: In other words, if a client is already in the regulated system - and he needed to send funds to Mary Sue, why wouldn't he just wire the money from his US account to her account directly? What does going via bitcoin provide?

Moreover, BVI is no longer an OECD "grey list" entity, meaning that full reporting back to the account holders home tax-base is taking place.

[jjiimm_64]

At this point, mtgox is getting 90% of all trading fees...  we need other exchanges.

[markm]

We have them, but nonetheless Gox gets most of the business. Why is that, do you think?

How many exchanges do you think can eke out a living on the percent that isn't Gox?

-MarkM-

[Stephen Gornick]

To clarify is this wouldn't be a "bank" in the traditional sense.  It wouldn't offer loans, offer interest, or engage in fractional reserve banking.  It would merely provide demand (deposit) accounts.

Kind of related:

A "Bitcoin Dollarization" Exchange?
 -  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104171.0

[DeathAndTaxes]

We have them, but nonetheless Gox gets most of the business. Why is that, do you think?

How many exchanges do you think can eke out a living on the percent that isn't Gox?

-MarkM-

Competing directly again Gox?  None unless they are well capitalized (meaning have cash in hand for 24-36 months of operation with full staff). 

As a niche provider with higher margins?  We aren't doing too bad right now. 

[moni3z]

You have to set everything up with a real local lawyer, no online lawyers or "offshore privacy" resellers or scammers. Offshore banking is the biggest scam going next to ponzi schemes right now. I'd recommend going there and actually meeting them before signing anything.

Lot's of realistic looking LLP lawyer sites peddling New Zealand Financial Companies yet the Finance minister of NZ claims these are illegal and don't exist.

EDIT.. I'm interested in what hardware authentication you would consider using

[BayAreaCoins]

I have been talking with an offshore bank in the British Virgin Islands about possibly accepting bitcoins.  They are not surprisingly uninterested however the discussions were useful because they did provide information on forming a finance company in the BVI.  The finance company could open an account with the offshore bank and create sub-accounts for clients of the finance company.   The finance company would be able to accept bitcoins and fiat currency deposits and offer currency (including Bitcoin) exchange services.

To clarify is this wouldn't be a "bank" in the traditional sense.  It wouldn't offer loans, offer interest, or engage in fractional reserve banking.  It would merely provide demand (deposit) accounts.

Potential account options:
* online banking with hardware 2 factor authentication.
* irreversible account to account transfers.
* debit card with ATM access.
* bank wires to "onshore" banks (financial privacy protected incoming and outgoing bank wires use a single-use transaction ID not an account number or account holder's name).
* access to offshore brokerage services.

The account to account transfer option (initiated by the sender) is interesting because they are irreversible and that could form the basis for a secure person to person trading/conversion.  As an example Joe needs 1000 BTC and Jane is willing to sell them.  Jane sends coins to the finance company acting as an escrow agent (or even a third party escrow agent).   Joe transfers $10,000 to Jane's sub-account and coins are released to Joe from escrow.

Just an idea at this point.  Comments?

If you're still interested in this... I am as well.  I've already contacted people in Belize, Switzerland and Panama.

Edit: But I want to steer clear of the offshore banks... their fee's are fucking crazy and bitcoin is built on being cheap.  I have an idea that will keep the service near free too possibly.

I call my idea "Offshore Paper Wallets".

[AnonyMint]

FATCHA implementation starts this year:

http://www.nestmann.com/finally-some-good-news-about-fatca

All banks will come into compliance on dealings with U.S. entities, else become ostracized from the global reserve system. The dollar will become king as emerging markets and Europe collapse in the sovereign debt bomb over the next 18 months. Due to ZIRP, the emerging markets became short the dollar since 2008 by selling massive dollar denominated corporate bonds. This is what has been fueling the massive amount of overbuilding in the emerging markets.

Borrower is slave to the lender. The dollar and FATCHA are in control.

And consider the ferocity with which the U.S.A. is headed combined with the control they have over the world:

http://www.nestmann.com/supreme-court-confirms-you-really-are-guilty-until-proven-innocent

[bitvestor]

This is something that is very perfect if initiated, but the aspect of being an escrow should be just on the side, if this works more as a Bitcoin bank, holding both bitcoin and fiat, bitcoin transfer is sent directly to bitcoin address and fiat transfers can be sent to onshore banks with the current exchange price at time of transfer.

Potential account options:
* online banking with hardware 2 factor authentication.
* irreversible account to account transfers.
* debit card with ATM access.
* bank wires to "onshore" banks (financial privacy protected incoming and outgoing bank wires use a single-use transaction ID not an account number or account holder's name).
* access to offshore brokerage services.

This is very perfect because they can withdraw from the ATM in fiat directly from the ATM, this can be funded by investors or with the  funds of those who deposited cash for bitcoins, so if a users wants cash he will be paid with the cash deposited by users wanting to buy bitcoins this can make it possible for you not to put cash just use the exchange which is already in the system, it will be a good trading platform, banking system for bitcoins and also a bitcoin financial institution but no loans granted...

[Lethn]

States hate Bitcoin so you probably won't find any because of all the regulations that are coming out now regarding Bitcoin, you could probably find some offshore banks that are okay with it though, I know Euro Pacific Bank apparently is okay with Bitcoin because I chatted with one of the support guys there and they said they were okay with people selling them and putting them in, it's also run by Peter Schiff so there's a very low chance you'll get scammed.

[ryanmnercer]

So basically you want to steal a ton of bitcoins by getting people to trust you to store them with you...

[cbeast]

So basically you want to steal a ton of bitcoins by getting people to trust you to store them with you...

In case you didn't notice this is an old forgotten thread.

[ryanmnercer]

So basically you want to steal a ton of bitcoins by getting people to trust you to store them with you...

In case you didn't notice this is an old forgotten thread.

Oh really? Is that why it's active and there are several posts before me today?

[superbros]

So basically you want to steal a ton of bitcoins by getting people to trust you to store them with you...

In case you didn't notice this is an old forgotten thread.

Oh really? Is that why it's active and there are several posts before me today?

There is an offshore company i have tried that open offshore account (only corporate,that means you must open an anonymous company)  in  a Central American Bank that accept BTC business, also they accept BTC as payment for their service, they are TGH Abogados & SPECTRA CORPORATION, really fast and with that service completely anonymous!

www.tghabogados.com

[RockHound]

I have been talking with an offshore bank in the British Virgin Islands about possibly accepting bitcoins.  They are not surprisingly uninterested however the discussions were useful because they did provide information on forming a finance company in the BVI.  The finance company could open an account with the offshore bank and create sub-accounts for clients of the finance company.   The finance company would be able to accept bitcoins and fiat currency deposits and offer currency (including Bitcoin) exchange services.

To clarify is this wouldn't be a "bank" in the traditional sense.  It wouldn't offer loans, offer interest, or engage in fractional reserve banking.  It would merely provide demand (deposit) accounts.

Potential account options:
* online banking with hardware 2 factor authentication.
* irreversible account to account transfers.
* debit card with ATM access.
* bank wires to "onshore" banks (financial privacy protected incoming and outgoing bank wires use a single-use transaction ID not an account number or account holder's name).
* access to offshore brokerage services.

The account to account transfer option (initiated by the sender) is interesting because they are irreversible and that could form the basis for a secure person to person trading/conversion.  As an example Joe needs 1000 BTC and Jane is willing to sell them.  Jane sends coins to the finance company acting as an escrow agent (or even a third party escrow agent).   Joe transfers $10,000 to Jane's sub-account and coins are released to Joe from escrow.

Just an idea at this point.  Comments?

Good for you D&T! Think a lot of us in the community are realizing the hindrance of Legal Company Formations and formal Entity registration with respect to Banking partners.

For the UK at least, it's a legal requirement to run finances of your Limited company through a Corporate bank account, but most banks here won't help any BTC-related businesses.  Not much has changed in this respect since you posted this thread.

I recently visited a new projects website:

http://www.coinffeine.com/   There's a slide presentation which demonstrates their concept.

And short Coindesk Article: http://www.coindesk.com/coinffeine-centralized-exchanges-distributed-alternative/

It's headed by a team of Spanish Developers and concentrates largely on Decentralization.
Their model differs from yours however, I think your project concept has potential if escrows are suitably insured (I don't know who is the Insurance group that covers Circle, might be worth investigating).

Overseas incorporation seems to be a solid option for our BTC enterprises at current. I am making small efforts to approach policy makers with the aim of making banking institutions more friendly towards BTC space (gonna be a challenge in itself and will take time!).