Bitcoin Forum

Global Standard Bank, the first global web based Bitcoin bank (www.globalstandardbank.com) is poised to make banking with this new cryptocurrency easy and accessible.
The 2009 introduction of Bitcoin (BTC) into the global currency market began an era of exciting possibilities reminiscent of the gold rush of the last century. Not unlike the Gold Rush, where fortunes were made and lost - Bitcoin's popularity has created a hazardous and confusing environment for many investors and speculators alike. The unregulated landscape is fertile ground for unscrupulous traders and fly-by-night operations that appear and vanish - often with their client's money. Also, being a digital currency stored on computers, owners of Bitcoin without protective infrastructure are subject to hacking and theft of their savings.
Global Standard Bank, founded on the principals of trust, integrity, and commitment stands ready to provide a safe and secure venue for investors in Bitcoin to navigate this exciting opportunity. An opportunity of which many speculate will be the opportunity of this century.
Through innovative and reliable solutions, Global Standard Bank provides a means to wealth creation and management that is simple to use, while sophisticated enough to meet the demands of a new global world.

Global Standard Bank, is an internet business that uses Bitcoin the new cryptocurrency as its base currency. It was started in 2010 and publicly launched on July, 5 2011. Its representatives claim it to be the first bank for Bitcoin, and aim to bring Bitcoin to a mainstream audience[1]

Though its name contains the word "Bank", the company is not technically a bank. It promotes itself as a high security operation to protect against loss of Bitcoins from theft or hacking and state a "guarantee" of up to 5,000 Bitcoins per account against loss. However, Bitcoin is only a virtual currency, and Global Standard Bank is not a member of the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, the government body that insures regular bank deposits.[2] It is also not on the list of federally-regulated banks of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions[3].

They quality of their site is not inline with the force of the claims.

This website seems sus.

Hi Gurt, Thanks for your help with the page I made for Global Standard Bank. There is another user trying to have the page deleted before it has a chance to grow with the addion of other user contrib. I think its a type of vandalism, as the same user entered into an editing war with me when i tried to include a link to the main Bitcoin page. Can you help?Bitcoineer (talk) 05:25, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Signing up to trade or save Bitcoin with Global Standard is easy. Simply fill-out our one-time application form, Select the account that is right for you, and fund your account in U.S. Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros or Bitcoins... and that’s it!

While the initial customer application will take a 10 to 15 minutes to complete, future transactions are as quick and easy as filling out a deposit, withdrawal or exchange slip.

Before you begin make sure you have the following details on hand:

•Your U.S. Social Security Number (SSN) or Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN)
            or National Insurance Number - for residents of the U.K.
•Previous address details if you have lived at your current address for less than 3 years.
•Two pieces of Government issued Identification (at least one with photo) see acceptable I.D.

Wow... they need your social to sign up at their 'bank'?

Wow... they need your social to sign up at their 'bank'?

Losing any investment to theft is always serious business

Wow... they need your social to sign up at their 'bank'?

I'm going to contact gary@garyhorsmandesign.com who is listed as the owner of the domain to see what he has to say.

like i said - i've never seen a bank where you didn't need a social.

but you're right - they should be here, posting.

They might be able to pull in some people who know nothing about Bitcoins.

Stored in our specially designed vault that combines the latest technology in bank grade encryption, redundant back-up systems and the physical security of an actual bank vault to protect against environmental threats such theft and fire. If that’s not enough, all deposits are fully guaranteed*against loss!

Please change this to scam alert.

There is a photo showing a ground floor location at http://www.globalstandardbank.com/Global_Standard/What_is_Bitcoin.html , same logo but it says "First Global" instead.  Appears kinda photoshopped IMO.

About $130 USD of Bitcoins are currently in circulation and, due to it's increasing popularity, the value has risen more than 6,000 percent this year alone.

Great sleuthing guys, we'll mention this in tomorrows show - I'll also reach out to them for an interview on the show to let them answer some of these questions, anybody find an email/phone that looks like it goes somewhere beyond a strawman?

Lets be fair

We admire the passion shared within the Bitcoin community both on Wikipedia and on the Bitcoin Forum. However, it is unfair and premature to start calling Global Standard Bank a scam or fraud, when we just started (last Week) and there has not been any negative experiences reported among our customers. We are very sorry that some of you do not like our website or the program used to build the site, but we are not web designers, we are a small group of professionals with varied backgrounds from banking and sales to law and administration. That being said, we appreciate your comments and where possible we will use your input to improve our site. Again, as we are brand new, there will no doubt be growing pains in our company and with our site.
Many of the photos on our site are stock images, which we will be slowly replacing as we develop our business. Pictures that may have offended users, or found to be misleading have been removed, and are only a projection of where we plan to take our company. At no point did we ever state that they were pictures of our offices, but given the possible conclusion that they are anything more that marketing material - they have been removed as well.
Our Montreal office is located as described on our website, which we share with several other notable companies and national brands. You are each welcome to visit us at our offices at anytime during business hours, but due to the high security nature of our business, we accept visitors by appointment only. Please call our office, and we will be pleased to meet with you.
We are a dually registered Canadian Federal Corporation, which until our launch, we operated as a numbered company to maintain the secrecy of our project until ready for public disclosure. You are welcome to visit the Industry Canada and Quebec websites to verify this but, if you have lived in Canada or especially Quebec, you will know that such postings do not appear immediately - sometimes a week or two. If you don't see our listing, please check back again.
We meant no disrespect to members of the Bitcoin Forum, for not posting or replying to posts regarding Global Standard Bank. We are not members of the forum, which means that we cannot post, except in the newbie section which is of little help today when all the posts were made about us. Also, members of the Bitcoin Forum are by large not our market. Our goal is to bring Bitcoin to a larger audience, out of the forums and bring it into everyday life as a common currency. Most users within the forums use exchanges like Mt. Gox or Tradehill, and would never use our type services which are geared towards retail customers; and they have significant technical savvy to properly secure their Bitcoins against hackers. Just as some investors with technical knowledge of the Forex market, buy and sell currencies directly from brokerages and others with average knowledge or less, deal with their local bank for conversion. We are not in competition with any of the exchanges, we are in, or developing a retail market for Bitcoin.
Social networking sites are an important component to our online marketing, and we would never "unfriend" anyone without cause, and if this did happen, it was either by mistake or due to a technical problem, and we are sorry if we offended anyone in this regard.
So, in the sprit of fair play, why don't you see what happens with Global Standard over the next few months and years before starting to give us serious names like Fraud or Scam. We accept the challenge to run our business in a manner that brings credit to Bitcoin and the community as a whole. Once again, thank you for your input and critical eye which has only caused us to improve our website and business. Should you have any questions or concerns please give us a call or email me directly.
Highest regards,
James Moore Global Standard Bank jim@globalstandardbank.com
p.s. The user bitcoineer is unknown to us, and is not connected with Global Standard Bank. We thank you for the thought of including us into Wikipedia, even if it is a little early to be here. jm — Preceding unsigned comment added by Global Standard (talk • contribs) 07:47, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Moore <jim@globalstandardbank.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: Interview Request
To: Bit Talk <bittalkradio@gmail.com>


Hi Atom,

Thank you for the email. We are happy to answer any questions, or address any concerns from the community. Please send us a list of your questions, and we will gladly send you our response.

Jim

On 2011-07-12, at 10:40 AM, Bit Talk wrote:

> Hi Jim,
> we've been following the growing controversy over your project Global Standard Bank/the bitcoin community, and wanted to give you an opportunity to get out in front of this - Up for answering some questions?
>
> Let us know what time/tech works best for you.
>
> -Atom
> Host, BitTalk with Atlas & Atom

> Hi James,
>
> Lets start off with the basics here, we can get into things like project capitalization, in a subsequent email....

Hi Atom,

Thank you for the opportunity of answering your questions and responding to your concerns. I am following the format herein so as not to miss any of the points you have touched on.

>
> With the stated 5000BTC per depositor guarantee (roughly 70,000USD at current value), and with the stated purpose of reaching a more mainstream market than those already "in the community", why do all the public views of your operation seem to be, frankly, cheaply faked?

It is our view that "cheaply faked" is a matter of opinon, and while there have been several comments like this from members of the Bitcoin Forum, the overall response to our website has been very positive.  Some have said that our website looks great, and others have compared it to established Bitcoin sites which have put little effort into design. Also, when we learned that another bank offering was launching on June 30th, we decided to fast track our launch in effort not to lose market share.

>
> Specifically, why did you
> 1) Use a free, no-name, no-exposure press release site

We used free-press release and other readily available marketing tools like social networking sites because we had decided on a soft launch as a form of beta testing. We can make all the predictions in the world, but there is no substitute for real world marketing and actual clients.
>
> 2) Use an exterior shot of another, similarly named bank with the name of the bank edited out?

Yes we did have a picture of a random building with a similar name and logo to ours in our original pages. This photo, and the artwork contained within were part of a mock up we made of our site prior to launch, and projects an image of where we would like to take the bank in the future. Just as you have modified photos on your own website to include the Bitcoin logo, it is simply a marketing image.  At no point did we say that it was our building, nor did the building have the name of our bank or our logo. Due to the change in timetable we decided to leave them in temporarily, but as you are aware they have been since replaced with actual photos of our office.
>
> 3) Use an interior shot from a different bank in Florida, when you claim to operate in Canada?

The photo you are referring to did not appear on our website, but on our flickr page, along with many random photos of everything from world flags to television images. We did not modify any of the photos in any way, but merely added a tag line "First Global Bank begins operations July 2011" This was done as a marketing effort to draw attention to the bank, which it has. As this has offended some people the photos have been removed.

>
> 4) Basically set off every "This is a scam" alert you could with your website, ranging from registration by a designer, rather than your corp. who does not seem to be related to your operation or responsive in any way, have a domain only registered for a year, etc, require lots of identification to apply but offer very little information about your own company... etc...

One would think Scam Alert, would be when someone is actually scammed, and not when people do not like your site design and use of images. Our site was registered by Gary, whom  de facto, is our webmaster. Although he did not design the site himself, he takes care of technical aspects of it. I cannot answer for him as to why he did not respond to an email enquiry, but I can suppose that perhaps he did not want to enter into any controversy or create any conflict between his client, and the public. It seems odd to me that someone with questions would email Gary in the first place, instead of contacting us directly. We have several of our e-mail addresses listed on our site, as well as our address, and telephone numbers, and nothing to hide. As to why our domain is only registered for a year - I have no idea, but I imagine that it is no different than annual renewals of everything from insurance to corporations.

Our requirement for identification is only in keeping with FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Report Analysis Centre of Canada) requirements. Other than proprietary information, we are transparent in our operations, such as providing our office address, phone number, and how it works. The mechanism for our accounts, the legal aspects and our policies can all be found on our website. We make no claims of paying interest, or fail to explain how this is accomplished.
>
> 5) Deny affiliation with the Wikipedia poster, when it seems nobody not involved with your operation even knew you existed until the wikipedia edits showed up?  Are you standing by your statement that none of your business associates either officially or of their own volition modified you into the Bitcoin wikipedia article?

I cannot speak to what people may do of their on volition, but officially we did not make a page on Wikipedia. In fact I discovered the Wikipedia article when searching Yahoo.com to see if our website had made it to their listing. As to wether it was posted by a member of our staff is unknown to us at this time. However, your question about Wikipedia is somewhat a moot point, as the denial of knowing this person is not that we disassociate ourselves but to make a point that the "owner" of our company was not engaged in any edit war with anyone. This is the fact, and of course we stand by it.
>
> And some more background....
>
> Who are you?

I am the VP of Marketing and Client Services at Global Standard.
>
> What is your goal?

Our goal at Global Standard is to add value to the community and our business by being a responsible corporate citizen, taking excellent care of our customers, and providing positive returns for our stakeholders. My personal goal is to to the very best job I can.

> How long have you personally worked with Bitcoins?  How did you get your start?

I had never heard of Bitcoin before coming to work at Global Standard, but I am now converted, and see the huge potential of the project and the possible global impact of the currency. I am proud to be part of the Bitcoin revolution.

> What is your background?

My personal background is traditional banking, where I was recruited to Global Standard after 10 years with a Major Canadian bank. My background is not different from many of us at Global Standard that come from traditional bricks and mortar professions. To my knowledge, none of us have been involved in online business start-ups like Global Standard, with the exception of a couple of engineers that are working with us that may have had some experience in this regard.

> How large is your company?

Because we are entering into a new market, and we face the potential of stiff competition in the near future - our actual number of employees is confidential information, but of the publicly visible personnel we have is 5 in Montreal and 3 in Toronto, and a myriad of others on a contractual basis, providing everything from IT support to marketing and design.


> How long have you been in business?

We have been in business since 2010 and operated as a Canadian Numbered Corporation, until July 5 2011 when we launched our website.


> Do you have any references?

Are you offering me a job?  

> Do you have any investors from the community who are familiar with your project?

No, all of our investors are from outside the Bitcoin community.

> If not, what are your investors backgrounds and goals with this project?

The background of our investors is business, financial services, investments and sales, I cannot speak to the personal goals of individual investors, but I am sure they share the same goal as that of the company, which is to create value.
>
> I think that a real bitcoin bank is needed, and I think the model you're putting forward makes a bunch of sense, but at the same time the way the bank has chosen to enter the market has not given you much credibility, we look forward to your responses.  You're also not the first bitcoin bank, FlexCoin launched last month, and it appears you launched on July 5  Will you be keeping that branding?

They say the proof is in the pudding, and as such I am confident that the Bank will build creditability over time. We have made significant investment in our project and intend to be here for the long haul, and not for immediate gains. As for not being the first Bitcoin bank, that remains to be seen. By the looks of it, FlexCoin seems more like a e-wallet and mining pool than a bank, and the details of how it all works appear ambiguous. We wish them well because we can not imagine a world with only one Bitcoin bank since we firmly believe in its' huge potential.

At Global Standard our initial offerings are only a taste of what we have planned. Within the near future, we plan on introducing other financial products and services that mirror that of traditional banking.

Thanks again for your questions, we look forward to hearing your show.

Best Regards
Jim

Honestly though, if they wanted to participate in the community you're stuck in the newbie zone for the first 5 posts, and for professional groups that represent outside interests I believe that requirement is waived with a simple request, right?

Shouldn't the thread title be changed, at least until we have more than a suspicion ?

Some standard due-diligence questions:

• "Global Standard Bank" is not listed with Canadian federal corporation search or Quebec corporation search.  Explain.

Some standard due-diligence questions:

• What is the actual name of your corporation, and in what jurisdiction is it incorporated?
• What is your D-U-N-S number, for your Dun and Bradstreet rating?
• "Global Standard Bank" is not listed with Canadian federal corporation search or Quebec corporation search.  Explain.
• Are your employees bonded? If so, who is your bonding company?
• Do you carry errors and omissions coverage? If so, who is your carrier?
• Has any executive employee of your company ever been convicted of a criminal offense?

Good start - anyone else have additional questions?

"Your corporate name cannot suggest, for example, that you are a branch of the government or that you offer services or products governed by financial legislation, such as trusts, loans, insurance and banking. "

A corporate name containing any of the following words is likely to be rejected unless the words are used in such a way that it is clear that the proposed corporation will not be a financial intermediary nor a bank: (Regulation 22)

    annuity, assurance, assurances
   bank, banc, bancorp, banco, bankco, banker, banking
    casualty, fiduciare, fiduciary, fiducie
    guaranty, indemnity, life, loan, loanco
    mortgage, insurance (unless used with the words "agency, agent, broker, service")
    pret, savings, surety
    trust, trustco, warranty

Notice the lack of replies from "Global Standard Bank" to basic due diligence questions, questions where the accuracy of the response can be checked.

The previous questions about faked pictures were answered by hand-waving.  That's not good enough for an organization which claims to be "a new truly global bank for a new global world".

This appears to be a scam operation until proven otherwise.

Notice the lack of replies from "Global Standard Bank" to basic due diligence questions, questions where the accuracy of the response can be checked.

The previous questions about faked pictures were answered by hand-waving.  That's not good enough for an organization which claims to be "a new truly global bank for a new global world".

This appears to be a scam operation until proven otherwise.

https://www.globalstandardbank.com/

ROFL nice bank  ::)