Intersango HSBC account freeze

[calmindifference]

Notice

 Transfers made to our HSBC account on or after the 19th which have not been linked to your account will be delayed.
 HSBC has unexpectedly closed our account.
 They did so without any warning.
 We are working on alternative banking options, but of course are having trouble quickly opening a new account.
 Transfer made into the account after our records stop but before the account was actually closed will be delayed until we can obtain the records.

Its been over a week now. Did anyone else transfer money in shortly before 19th and it's become inaccessible?
It would be good to know how many are in the same boat.
I find the lack of updates from intersango unbelievable.

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[dancupid]

Notice

 Transfers made to our HSBC account on or after the 19th which have not been linked to your account will be delayed.
 HSBC has unexpectedly closed our account.
 They did so without any warning.
 We are working on alternative banking options, but of course are having trouble quickly opening a new account.
 Transfer made into the account after our records stop but before the account was actually closed will be delayed until we can obtain the records.

Its been over a week now. Did anyone else transfer money in shortly before 19th and it's become inaccessible?
It would be good to know how many are in the same boat.
I find the lack of updates from intersango unbelievable.

I only found out when I was about to transfer money to them - luckily I went to their website first to check their account details were still the same. In the past I just used their stored details on my bank accounts website. They should really make it more explicit on their front page.

edit: I hope they find an alternative soon - they provide a very trustworthy reliable service

[phantomcircuit]

We have a new account at an alternative bank and are just finalizing some paperwork. We are still working on obtaining the records from HSBC, however they are being unreasonably slow in providing us with the records.

HSBC did not give us any warning that they were going to close our account; we are working as fast as we can, however we can only work on this as fast as HSBC. We were apprehensive about putting out an early official statement as we did not want to be misinforming people as to what's happening.

[cypherdoc]

anyone have any similar problems with mtgox and their HSBC acct?

[genjix]

Yes. It's a little suspicious that all these events happened within the span of 5 days (one working week):

- MTGox EUR and GBP accounts have been closed.
- Intersango GBP (our EUR account remains) were suddenly terminated overnight.
- TradeHill EUR bank account was closed.
- ExchangeBitcoins closes suddenly (might be unrelated).

Notice: UK bank account closures

Transfers made to our HSBC account after the 18th which had not yet reached your account will be delayed. Our HSBC account was closed unexpectedly without prior notice. These transfers made after our records stop but before the account was actually closed will be delayed until we can obtain the records.

We are still working on obtaining the records from HSBC, however they are being unreasonably slow in providing us with the records. HSBC did not give us any warning that they were going to close our account; we are working as fast as we can, however we can only work on this as fast as HSBC.

We have a new account at an alternative bank and are just finalizing some paperwork. Deposits should be functioning next week. Sorry for any delay with deposits. If you have further questions, feel free to email support@intersango.com.

[tvbcof]

Yes. It's a little suspicious that all these events happened within the span of 5 days (one working week):

- MTGox EUR and GBP accounts have been closed.
- Intersango GBP (our EUR account remains) were suddenly terminated overnight.
- TradeHill EUR bank account was closed.
- ExchangeBitcoins closes suddenly (might be unrelated).
...

I've figured that it was just a matter of time before it gets quite challenging to move chips from our debt-based monetary systems to and from the Bitcoin network.  The paranoia cost me dearly as I moved into Bitcoin faster than I would have otherwise.

I suspect that at some point, the most practical way to obtain BTC will to meet someone on the street in a situation where you don't know anything about them other than they have managed to obtain a lot of BTC somehow, and they have a pretty good idea that you have something of significant value on your person.  Fun!

[MemoryDealers]

People in Europe can buy Bitcoins with a CC or Paypal from me.
On the 25BTC coins the premium is not too bad,  and any customer with a CC or paypal can currently buy Bitcoins through
http://www.memorydealers.com/bieq.html

Sales inside the USA have been huge,  but just a few from Europe.

If you have Euros or Pounds,  and want to buy Bitcoins,  this might be the easiest way.

Please help me spread the word.

[phantomcircuit]

People in Europe can buy Bitcoins with a CC or Paypal from me.
On the 25BTC coins the premium is not too bad,  and any customer with a CC or paypal can currently buy Bitcoins through
http://www.memorydealers.com/bieq.html

Sales inside the USA have been huge,  but just a few from Europe.

If you have Euros or Pounds,  and want to buy Bitcoins,  this might be the easiest way.

Please help me spread the word.

Just so we're clear our SEPA account is still open.

[CoinExchanger]

This is exactly why we will never deal with any banking institution. We are saving our customers the headache.

Bitcoin does not mix with traditional banking tools, period.

We will only deal with new generation e-currencies such as Liberty Reserve and Bitcoin.

MTGox will have their Chase Bank account closed pretty soon. Bets are accepted!!

Visit, www.coinexchanger.com

[ssaCEO]

I want to understand what this would mean on a business level. Let's say we're a casino. We want to take players from all over the world, most of whom hold their money in Euros, Yen, AUD, NZD, or one or another kind of Peso. They already have plenty of ways to use their credit cards or prepaid cards to deposit to other casinos. If Bitcoin trading houses can't offer them the convenience of converting directly from their currency to BTC, then all that's happening is the houses are pushing the burden of regulation one step further down the line to Liberty Reserve or another brokerage. My concern is that should it ever require a two-step process to convert from your paycheck currency to BTC, no one will ever do it. One might ask why not just trade Linden Dollars or Liberty Reserve at that point, and skip trading in and out of Bitcoin at all? Thus far, the organizations centrally responsible for those currencies haven't proven to be so unstable as to drive off consumers, meaning there's no great economic advantage in taking the extra step to convert to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin trading houses need to strengthen ties to the banking industry, not sever them. Without a continuous influx of capital that's currently held in fiat currency, Bitcoin will remain weak for a long, long time.

[miernik]

Yes. It's a little suspicious that all these events happened within the span of 5 days (one working week):

- MTGox EUR and GBP accounts have been closed.

Where did you get the info from that MtGox GBP account is closed?

On the deposit form in GBP the Barclays account is still there as usual.

[Tulkas]

They can simply freeze the account ?

On what grounds ?

Maybe we should setup a wiki page somewhere with all legal information regarding interaction with the "fiat world" (such as this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49862.0 ) so other bitcoin businesses can benefit from it.

Its just me or they seem to be very well organized in their efforts to disrupt bitcoin ?

I think a bank closing/freezing your account like that is a BIG deal, even know criminals don't get their accounts closed like that.

I think we are taking all that all too softly, maybe as a group we can make enough noise about this, simply keeping our heads down and trying to open the account with other institution is not a good solution, it is not a solution at all! sooner or later there will be no other banks left.

[Serge]

Tulkas, "fiat world" is regulated, you can't simply handle other people's money without some sort of a license. But closing accounts without providing a reason is strange, I guess they reserve the right in their TOS somewhere to deny service to anyone at anytime whenever they want.

[barrymac]

anyone have any similar problems with mtgox and their HSBC acct?

Yes! I tried to withdraw from Mtgox to a HSBC account many times over the last few weeks and the transactions failed even though I checked with them and the details were correct.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Gandhi