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I’d add that its a very rose colored illusion that is totally the opposite of what happens. KYC/AML guidelines are often used to banish poor people from the fin

I’d add that its a very rose colored illusion that is totally the opposite of what happens. KYC/AML guidelines are often used to banish poor people from the financial system. I’m by no means rich and I’m sometimes getting into KYC hell because my passport have the wrong color. Banks will often flag poor people for the slight things and demand impossible documents. You send the required documents and they keep saying that’s not enough and requesting more and more documents. I had this debit card company asking me for criminal records (never committed a crime, financial or not) in english and translated by a trusted entity. I’m from a portuguese speaking country and live in a slavic country. I don’t think they were actually expecting me to send those impossible documents and more like the platform wanted me out. Banks will ban you because you are not worth the risk. They call this “de-risking”. Meanwhile rich people can just hire someone to handle the requests and as we often see in billion dollars money laundering scandals the bank might even turn a blind eye for a while if there is profit in it. To add fuel to the fire many KYC/AML proponents will justify this abuse by trying to say in a polite manner that its your fault for having born in the wrong place. I’ve actually seen fervent self proclaimed anti-racist pro-immigration people agree with this kind of abuse. Racism and xenophobia are alive, well and officially sponsored by the general population through the guise of financial crime laws.

dan-robertson 4y ago
I don’t think it’s really intended for KYC/AML/ATF to keep poor people out of the system, though it is true that in practice they mean it’s hard to have access to the financial system if eg you’re homeless or your name is Mohammed and you send remittances to your family abroad. And banks have a shared ‘blacklist’ of people who cause them compliance pains so those people who have a hard time at one bank can end up having a hard time at many other banks.

dan-robertson 4y ago

I don’t think it’s really intended for KYC/AML/ATF to keep poor people out of the system, though it is true that in practice they mean it’s hard to have access to the financial system if eg you’re homeless or your name is Mohammed and you send remittances to your family abroad. And banks have a shared ‘blacklist’ of people who cause them compliance pains so those people who have a hard time at one bank can end up having a hard time at many other banks.