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> and the EU are being de-banked by local banks because of US pressure allowing them to force any bank that wants to use USD What is this about? I'm a EU citiz

> and the EU are being de-banked by local banks because of US pressure allowing them to force any bank that wants to use USD What is this about? I'm a EU citizen, never heard about any EU citizen getting removed from any EU bank because of USD. Nor have I heard anyone being sanctioned by the US in the EU unless they're Russia-related somehow. Is there any link to a story about this?

hkt 11mo ago
https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-complicated-life-of-francesca-albanese-a-rising-figure-in-italy-but-barred-from-every-bank-by-trumps-sanctions.html https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp...
- embedding-shape 11mo ago
  That sort of sanctioning is world-wide, isn't it? Not specifically targeting EU banks, but rather she's blacklisted from any bank in the world who follows those blacklisting lists, at least from what I understand it. Parent's comment gave me the impression that this was something exclusive to EU (and Swiss) banks in particular, since they were mentioned by name.
  - rjzzleep 11mo ago
    The world as defined by the US yeah.
  - toyg 11mo ago
    I think the meaning was "people are now targeted even in the EU".
  - _ache_ 11mo ago
    No. It's a MasterCard/Visa only (and Amercian Express I guess, maybe JCB too). So technically, she can pay by card in France, Belgium, India and others countries that don't rely exclusively on Visa/MasterCard. With local cards.
    - embedding-shape 11mo ago
      I'm not sure, skimmed the article and came across this: > She cannot open a bank account anywhere in the world or have a credit card, because she has been placed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of the U.S. Treasury Department, which targets money laundering and terrorism. Are you saying this isn't true then? She's not actually on OFAC, but instead just targeted via Visa/MC?
      - _ache_ 11mo ago
        No no, it's the same. The OFAC apply to US companies only and forbid VISA/MasterCard to manage her transactions (and a LOT of others companies ... like a lot, not just Visa and MasterCard). Legally Europeans bank shouldn't apply US sanctions, maybe they do, but legally, they should not (CJUE thing, I'm not an expert). I don't think it ever happen, because ... money launder generally doesn't complains about US sanction, it's wasn't a problem.
    - Vosporos 11mo ago
      Carte Bleue in France was absorbed by Visa in 2010 I'm afraid.
      - _ache_ 11mo ago
        Yes, but it's only a brand. The main things is "Le réseau CB".
CGamesPlay 11mo ago
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n... There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/us-bans-visas-for-ex-eu-commissioner-over-alleged-censorship.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/us-bans-visas-for-ex-eu-comm...
- benjiro 11mo ago
  > as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank Did you read the article? The judge reported closed/blocked bank accounts, booking being cancelled (successful booked, then later cancelled by the companies)... https://verfassungsblog.de/sanctions-us-icc-united-states/ https://verfassungsblog.de/sanctions-us-icc-united-states/ From a other poster: > He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction. Same with recently Garry Kasparov been designated a "T" by Russia. Banks simply do not take risks dealing with hot customers, as this can affect their entire business (especially if they have branches in the US). So they rather railroad individuals that have little power, then take the risk that they will lose millions if the US sanctions their bank. Its also linked to a lot of other things. Somebody who worked at a bank gave a description yesterday on how it works. And if your on that list, you are really in a world of hurt.
  - CGamesPlay 11mo ago
    > There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand Yes, I read the article. You misread my comment.
    - 11mo ago
jeroenhd 11mo ago
People investigation Israel for war crimes tend to get sanctioned by the Americans. Because European banks don't have the necessary guardrails to block an individual account from participating in their American-facing banking operations, they have to choose between being sanctioned themselves or kicking out their America-sanctioned customers. The real solution is for them to fix their shitty systems but I don't a handful of judges, lawyers, and human rights activists are important enough for them to make that investment.
- delusional 11mo ago
  Not to sound cynical, but what's to stop these officials from picking non-multinational regional bank?
  - jeroenhd 11mo ago
    This isn't just about being a customer to a multinational bank: this also includes European banks who do business with American banks. For instance, most credit/debit cards in Europe are based on either Mastercard or Visa. All banks I know of will allow you to pay in dollars through online banking. I don't think there are any European banks that don't communicate with American payment providers in some way by default. It's possible that there are some that trust their feature gates enough to take on these sanctioned people (like government-run banks for those who can't get a normal bank account, i.e. because of a history of fraud and crime), but I don't think these banks will advertise that ability. Perhaps if she'd take an Iranian, North Korean, or Russian bank account, she might be able to do America-free banking, but that's not very practical outside of Iran, North Korea, or Russia at the moment.
  - pdpi 11mo ago
    I'm an EU citizen and UK resident. If I were to become one of those officials, my banking situation would become much more complex. One of the defining characteristics of the EU (not that the UK ever cared, even before leaving) is Freedom of Movement, and this is a credible threat to that freedom.
    - 11mo ago
saubeidl 11mo ago
Here's a German NGO that got debanked because of US pressure because they dare to be openly antifascist: https://rote-hilfe.de/meldungen/kontokuendigung-wegen-antifa-banken-vollstrecken-us-politik-deutschland https://rote-hilfe.de/meldungen/kontokuendigung-wegen-antifa...
gambiting 11mo ago
Yeah absolutely - I have an account with mBank in Poland and I got a letter from them saying that I need to declare if I'm a "tax person" in the US and if yes then unfortunately they will be forced to close my account as they would have to report all of my banking to some US insistution and that's not worth the hassle of having me as a client.
- sznio 11mo ago
  Wondering why. I have an account with PKO BP and never got asked that, and I've used it to do business with US individuals.
- embedding-shape 11mo ago
  That doesn't sound like "the EU are being de-banked by local banks because of US pressure" at all, it sounds like EU banks or de-banking US residents/citizens, which is wildly different from the initial claim, or how I understood it at least. I thought EU residents/citizens were being cut off from EU banks.
  - immibis 11mo ago
    The reason banks do this is that if they don't comply with US tax laws they'll be cut off from all US-based banking systems including international payments (universally conducted in USD), cut off from issuing any credit or debit cards (they are all US-based networks) and the CEO will be arrested if he ever steps foot on American soil. So basically, the US is forcing them to do this and they don't have a choice unless they want to stop being a bank. It's the same situation as dealing with US-sanctioned individuals. HTH.
    - pas 11mo ago
      yes, but that's not de-banking. it's banking being shitty. (it's the same problem as healthcare and construction, a shitton of regulation, some competition, but no real big differences, and a lot of global dependencies [from generic pharma producers to HVAC/heatpumps and global commodity prices for construction materials and patents and prefab systems and ...], but ultimately local bottlenecks.) obviously it sucks that FATCA compliance is hard, but it shouldn't be, and ... it's on the banking industry that it's not using some kind of common reporting backend ... oh wait, it does! (CRS!) (okay, I'm being probably unfair here, of course it's still more work, more support requests, more papers to push, than the counterfactual, but banks already have their reporting systems integrated to the various tax and financial-authority agencies) ... and FATCA is implemented in part through intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), and the "model 1" is a reciprocal tax info sharing between the parties, the bank reports to the local tax service, and that's it. see also https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/services/tax/articles/common-reporting-standard-readiness.html https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/services/tax/articles/common-...
SanjayMehta 11mo ago
Col Jacques Baud, (ret), is a Swiss citizen living in Brussels. Former intelligence agent, worked also with NATO. [0] https://www.defenddemocracy.press/eu-sanctions-swiss-intelligence-expert-jacques-baud/ https://www.defenddemocracy.press/eu-sanctions-swiss-intelli... [1] https://youtu.be/VwNH3FLeZLA https://youtu.be/VwNH3FLeZLA
fmajid 11mo ago
Judges and the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, for instance. https://archive.is/DFHM6 https://archive.is/DFHM6
KellyCriterion 11mo ago
Scan the German press, there are several cases. Esp in the last weeks: Interesting is - it started with right-wing people getting de-banked, now left-wing people are following for what ever reason.
throwaway290 11mo ago
> unless they're Russia-related somehow this is doing a lot of work. at what point person stops being Russia related in your view?
- embedding-shape 11mo ago
  Having no ties to businesses or individuals located in Russia. Like myself and countless of others.
  - throwaway290 11mo ago
    > have ties This is doing a lot of work. at what point person starts or stops having ties with russia? if you have any siblings or parents or grandparents or cousins or classmates or ex girlfriends who are living in Russia? I know a bunch of foreigners with stronger ties to Russia than some of my Russian friends by this logic my friend;) especially Ukrainians and Israelis but really anywhere in the world. debank them all you say? What it sounds like is the old USSR way "make sure most people are guilty of something so that if you want to press them you always have some excuse"
    - embedding-shape 11mo ago
      Not sure what your point is, I'm not arguing for debanking anyone related or having ties to Russia, in any way. But I do understand there are victims of other circumstances here, and that has a collateral victims (which again, I don't want, but it is the reality). You're arguing against a point no one here made.
      - throwaway290 11mo ago
        Remember you are replying to > We are rapidly losing our freedoms to the will of these companies. If they decide they don't want to they can even if the law doesn't forbid it. I asked some questions to see how solid your reply was. seems not very. you basically say nah, no one is losing freedom, people are only sanctioned if they have this > Nor have I heard anyone being sanctioned by the US in the EU unless they're Russia-related somehow means you heard of ppl are arbitrarily sanctioned unless there is a specific criteria for what means Russia related
YawningAngel 11mo ago
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n...
nerdsniper 11mo ago
Here’s one also currently on HN front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432057
pmontra 11mo ago
It's on HN front page right now https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n... Unpaywalled link https://archive.is/20251203115217/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://archive.is/20251203115217/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/...
rsync 11mo ago
"I'm a EU citizen, never heard about any EU citizen getting removed from any EU bank because of USD ..." US and USD need not be involved - EU does this on it's own without any pressure: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/former-swiss-intelligence-officer-targeted-by-new-eu-sanctions-on-russia/90665703 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/former-swiss-in... "As a result Baud will not be allowed to travel within EU countries and his assets in the Euro zone will be frozen." His assertions are not particularly extreme and, without question, fall into the realm of protected, free speech. This is orthogonal to whether you or I agree with what he is saying. Finding his views "dangerous" is an admission of profound weakness.
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]

hkt 11mo ago

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-complicated-life-of-francesca-albanese-a-rising-figure-in-italy-but-barred-from-every-bank-by-trumps-sanctions.html https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp...

embedding-shape 11mo ago
That sort of sanctioning is world-wide, isn't it? Not specifically targeting EU banks, but rather she's blacklisted from any bank in the world who follows those blacklisting lists, at least from what I understand it. Parent's comment gave me the impression that this was something exclusive to EU (and Swiss) banks in particular, since they were mentioned by name.
- rjzzleep 11mo ago
  The world as defined by the US yeah.
- toyg 11mo ago
  I think the meaning was "people are now targeted even in the EU".
- _ache_ 11mo ago
  No. It's a MasterCard/Visa only (and Amercian Express I guess, maybe JCB too). So technically, she can pay by card in France, Belgium, India and others countries that don't rely exclusively on Visa/MasterCard. With local cards.
  - embedding-shape 11mo ago
    I'm not sure, skimmed the article and came across this: > She cannot open a bank account anywhere in the world or have a credit card, because she has been placed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of the U.S. Treasury Department, which targets money laundering and terrorism. Are you saying this isn't true then? She's not actually on OFAC, but instead just targeted via Visa/MC?
    - _ache_ 11mo ago
      No no, it's the same. The OFAC apply to US companies only and forbid VISA/MasterCard to manage her transactions (and a LOT of others companies ... like a lot, not just Visa and MasterCard). Legally Europeans bank shouldn't apply US sanctions, maybe they do, but legally, they should not (CJUE thing, I'm not an expert). I don't think it ever happen, because ... money launder generally doesn't complains about US sanction, it's wasn't a problem.
  - Vosporos 11mo ago
    Carte Bleue in France was absorbed by Visa in 2010 I'm afraid.
    - _ache_ 11mo ago
      Yes, but it's only a brand. The main things is "Le réseau CB".

CGamesPlay 11mo ago

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n... There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/us-bans-visas-for-ex-eu-commissioner-over-alleged-censorship.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/us-bans-visas-for-ex-eu-comm...

benjiro 11mo ago
> as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank Did you read the article? The judge reported closed/blocked bank accounts, booking being cancelled (successful booked, then later cancelled by the companies)... https://verfassungsblog.de/sanctions-us-icc-united-states/ https://verfassungsblog.de/sanctions-us-icc-united-states/ From a other poster: > He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction. Same with recently Garry Kasparov been designated a "T" by Russia. Banks simply do not take risks dealing with hot customers, as this can affect their entire business (especially if they have branches in the US). So they rather railroad individuals that have little power, then take the risk that they will lose millions if the US sanctions their bank. Its also linked to a lot of other things. Somebody who worked at a bank gave a description yesterday on how it works. And if your on that list, you are really in a world of hurt.
- CGamesPlay 11mo ago
  > There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand Yes, I read the article. You misread my comment.
  - 11mo ago

jeroenhd 11mo ago

People investigation Israel for war crimes tend to get sanctioned by the Americans. Because European banks don't have the necessary guardrails to block an individual account from participating in their American-facing banking operations, they have to choose between being sanctioned themselves or kicking out their America-sanctioned customers. The real solution is for them to fix their shitty systems but I don't a handful of judges, lawyers, and human rights activists are important enough for them to make that investment.

delusional 11mo ago
Not to sound cynical, but what's to stop these officials from picking non-multinational regional bank?
- jeroenhd 11mo ago
  This isn't just about being a customer to a multinational bank: this also includes European banks who do business with American banks. For instance, most credit/debit cards in Europe are based on either Mastercard or Visa. All banks I know of will allow you to pay in dollars through online banking. I don't think there are any European banks that don't communicate with American payment providers in some way by default. It's possible that there are some that trust their feature gates enough to take on these sanctioned people (like government-run banks for those who can't get a normal bank account, i.e. because of a history of fraud and crime), but I don't think these banks will advertise that ability. Perhaps if she'd take an Iranian, North Korean, or Russian bank account, she might be able to do America-free banking, but that's not very practical outside of Iran, North Korea, or Russia at the moment.
- pdpi 11mo ago
  I'm an EU citizen and UK resident. If I were to become one of those officials, my banking situation would become much more complex. One of the defining characteristics of the EU (not that the UK ever cared, even before leaving) is Freedom of Movement, and this is a credible threat to that freedom.
  - 11mo ago

saubeidl 11mo ago

Here's a German NGO that got debanked because of US pressure because they dare to be openly antifascist: https://rote-hilfe.de/meldungen/kontokuendigung-wegen-antifa-banken-vollstrecken-us-politik-deutschland https://rote-hilfe.de/meldungen/kontokuendigung-wegen-antifa...

gambiting 11mo ago

Yeah absolutely - I have an account with mBank in Poland and I got a letter from them saying that I need to declare if I'm a "tax person" in the US and if yes then unfortunately they will be forced to close my account as they would have to report all of my banking to some US insistution and that's not worth the hassle of having me as a client.

sznio 11mo ago
Wondering why. I have an account with PKO BP and never got asked that, and I've used it to do business with US individuals.
embedding-shape 11mo ago
That doesn't sound like "the EU are being de-banked by local banks because of US pressure" at all, it sounds like EU banks or de-banking US residents/citizens, which is wildly different from the initial claim, or how I understood it at least. I thought EU residents/citizens were being cut off from EU banks.
- immibis 11mo ago
  The reason banks do this is that if they don't comply with US tax laws they'll be cut off from all US-based banking systems including international payments (universally conducted in USD), cut off from issuing any credit or debit cards (they are all US-based networks) and the CEO will be arrested if he ever steps foot on American soil. So basically, the US is forcing them to do this and they don't have a choice unless they want to stop being a bank. It's the same situation as dealing with US-sanctioned individuals. HTH.
  - pas 11mo ago
    yes, but that's not de-banking. it's banking being shitty. (it's the same problem as healthcare and construction, a shitton of regulation, some competition, but no real big differences, and a lot of global dependencies [from generic pharma producers to HVAC/heatpumps and global commodity prices for construction materials and patents and prefab systems and ...], but ultimately local bottlenecks.) obviously it sucks that FATCA compliance is hard, but it shouldn't be, and ... it's on the banking industry that it's not using some kind of common reporting backend ... oh wait, it does! (CRS!) (okay, I'm being probably unfair here, of course it's still more work, more support requests, more papers to push, than the counterfactual, but banks already have their reporting systems integrated to the various tax and financial-authority agencies) ... and FATCA is implemented in part through intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), and the "model 1" is a reciprocal tax info sharing between the parties, the bank reports to the local tax service, and that's it. see also https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/services/tax/articles/common-reporting-standard-readiness.html https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/services/tax/articles/common-...

SanjayMehta 11mo ago

Col Jacques Baud, (ret), is a Swiss citizen living in Brussels. Former intelligence agent, worked also with NATO. [0] https://www.defenddemocracy.press/eu-sanctions-swiss-intelligence-expert-jacques-baud/ https://www.defenddemocracy.press/eu-sanctions-swiss-intelli... [1] https://youtu.be/VwNH3FLeZLA https://youtu.be/VwNH3FLeZLA

fmajid 11mo ago

Judges and the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, for instance. https://archive.is/DFHM6 https://archive.is/DFHM6

KellyCriterion 11mo ago

Scan the German press, there are several cases. Esp in the last weeks: Interesting is - it started with right-wing people getting de-banked, now left-wing people are following for what ever reason.

throwaway290 11mo ago

> unless they're Russia-related somehow this is doing a lot of work. at what point person stops being Russia related in your view?

embedding-shape 11mo ago
Having no ties to businesses or individuals located in Russia. Like myself and countless of others.
- throwaway290 11mo ago
  > have ties This is doing a lot of work. at what point person starts or stops having ties with russia? if you have any siblings or parents or grandparents or cousins or classmates or ex girlfriends who are living in Russia? I know a bunch of foreigners with stronger ties to Russia than some of my Russian friends by this logic my friend;) especially Ukrainians and Israelis but really anywhere in the world. debank them all you say? What it sounds like is the old USSR way "make sure most people are guilty of something so that if you want to press them you always have some excuse"
  - embedding-shape 11mo ago
    Not sure what your point is, I'm not arguing for debanking anyone related or having ties to Russia, in any way. But I do understand there are victims of other circumstances here, and that has a collateral victims (which again, I don't want, but it is the reality). You're arguing against a point no one here made.
    - throwaway290 11mo ago
      Remember you are replying to > We are rapidly losing our freedoms to the will of these companies. If they decide they don't want to they can even if the law doesn't forbid it. I asked some questions to see how solid your reply was. seems not very. you basically say nah, no one is losing freedom, people are only sanctioned if they have this > Nor have I heard anyone being sanctioned by the US in the EU unless they're Russia-related somehow means you heard of ppl are arbitrarily sanctioned unless there is a specific criteria for what means Russia related

YawningAngel 11mo ago

nerdsniper 11mo ago

Here’s one also currently on HN front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432057

pmontra 11mo ago

It's on HN front page right now https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n... Unpaywalled link https://archive.is/20251203115217/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-french-icc-judge-sanctioned-by-the-us-you-are-effectively-blacklisted-by-much-of-the-world-s-banking-system_6747628_4.html https://archive.is/20251203115217/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/...

rsync 11mo ago

"I'm a EU citizen, never heard about any EU citizen getting removed from any EU bank because of USD ..." US and USD need not be involved - EU does this on it's own without any pressure: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/former-swiss-intelligence-officer-targeted-by-new-eu-sanctions-on-russia/90665703 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/former-swiss-in... "As a result Baud will not be allowed to travel within EU countries and his assets in the Euro zone will be frozen." His assertions are not particularly extreme and, without question, fall into the realm of protected, free speech. This is orthogonal to whether you or I agree with what he is saying. Finding his views "dangerous" is an admission of profound weakness.

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]