[2014-07-24] Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Startups Frustrated by “Crazy Scared” Banks

[epere]

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/07/23/bitbeat-hong-kongs-bitcoin-startups-frustrated-by-crazy-scared-banks/

A flurry of bitcoin startups, including digital-currency exchange ANX and bitcoin debit card provider Cryptex, have laid down roots in the territory recently. Still, many have found their ability to grow curtailed by the same obstacle that constrains bitcoin businesses in China and the U.S.: They can’t open bank accounts.

It’s not because Hong Kong authorities are cracking down, or even because banks in the territory are inherently anti-bitcoin, but because of the dominance that U.S. banks and their increasingly nervous compliance officers hold over the global financial system.

[gmx95]

This was to be expected. For years banks have been scared of anything new, including e-currency business of course, even before bitcoin.

[marcus_of_augustus]

The banks are regulating themselves out of business, literally. It is a broken model and ultimately not sustainable. They are dying businesses.