Originally Posted by GreyWolf

Gave up on that stuff years ago MOxxx - they could not open a foreign currency account if their lives depended on it. (There are other banking problems underlying this and probably the reason it's not so common.)

Sure, it's normal in most western countries to be able to open bank accounts in whatever currencies. One of the best banks we use is an OS bank (for that reason, it's prob no good for what you want) who provide clients with one master account, then around 40 sub-accounts in other currencies. You can hold a currency in it's account, transfer it to another currency blah. The prime international banks are nowhere near that level of service.