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The banking system sucks pretty much everywhere these days. Banks are terrified since 9/11 -- especially banks that do business in the US, of the Patriot Act and the other money laundering laws.
In the US, cash or instruments of cash, transactions that are more than 10,000 require a Cash Transaction Report to be filed with the government, including gambling winnings, cashiers checks, etc. There is also a form called the Suspicious Activity Report, which is filed on transactions over 5,000. What exactly constituted suspicious activity is pretty much a mystery to everyone at every bank and to most regulators. I was just reading an article in the business section last week about how the system is now inundated with so many SARS that the government can barely process them all -- basically banks are turning them in right and left in order to make sure they don't allow anything that might be considered suspicious go through without the form...
Can't you get a brokerage account somewhere, like a Merrill Lynch or a Morgan Stanley? Most brokerage houses offer programs that are identical to standard banking, usually with cheaper rates and more bells and whistles too...
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