Euro Pacific Bank EPB vs uphold.com

[miner]

What is the point of Euro Pacific Bank nowadays? Looks antiqued. Super difficult to wire money there since they support only SWIFT. Not SEPA.

They don't even hold their mouth shut. When transactions are too big, they block it and ask questions where the money is coming from. High fees.

They money is held in corespondent banks such as in the US or in the UK. Speak: They are totally in the pocket of the US.

The legal location of

 

[miner]

of EPB is Puerto Rico, which is part of the US. Speak: They are totally in the pocket of the US.
EPB blocks wire to and from crypto currency exchanges since their correspondent banks don't like that. EPB does not allow to depost Bitcoin or other crypto currencies.

On the other hand uphold dot com is incorporated in the US. So no advantage or disadvantage here. But on uphold dot com one can make deposits using SEPA and Bitcoin.
So either EPB is a relic from the past or I have a giant gap in my understanding. Please enlighten me. I very much would like to understand the point of EPB why anyone would go through the difficulty of wiring money there.

 

[Mark34]

Puerto Rico is not part of CRS (US not sign to it) or FATCA(Puerto Rico is excluded from this US agreements).

This is kind of an advantage, but not sure how big.

 

[miner]

Well, uphold as within US then also is not part of CRS. So Still not advantage of EPB.

 

[Mark34]

When uphold is incorporated directly in US, then it is part of FATCA, which is exactly the same thing as CRS. Blind spot in AEOI is right now only in US territories - Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa .. and blind spot is an advantage. Try to google about it.

But I do not know the uphold service, whether it is a bank or how it works.

 

[miner]

As a non-US person, FACTA doesn't concern me. (Besides filling these annoying letters stating that I have nothing to do with the US.)

And as an US person, EPB wouldn't take one anyhow.

 

[Mark34]

I believe that FATCA works both ways, all countries report to US about US citizens foreign account, and US report to all countries about non-US citizens accounts in US. I not sure about it, but it make sense this way.

 

[Martin Everson]

@miner Considering EPB moved from St Vincent to Puerto Rico in Nov 2017 to avoid CRS for it clients that is not a good sign or a good business model. It is not good for the reputation of the bank or its staff who could face serious criminal offences being in U.S territory if anything goes wrong with a wire transfer. I am surprised the bank is still around in 2018.

I saw also a post saying they lost arrangement with mastercard. Any truth in this?

Europacbank is rated "Poor" with 3.1 / 10 on Trustpilot

 

[Martin Everson]

I will check out uphold. At least on upholds website I can see the faces and names of the ppl that work there and manage the company. EPB is totally anonymous. Who owns or manages EPB? I don't even think EPB are a 100% reserve bank. Has this been independently verified? EPB could end up being the biggest offshore banking ponzi scheme. Hence why they delay outgoing payments and also making up compliance excuses so clients are deterred from transferring out their money. This of course

 

[karlx]

EPB stopped their debit card for non-European accounts. Mine was cancelled with immediate notice. EPB must be looking for some alternative, but I don't think it is very easy for them. Not only that, bank wire is quite difficult now after they re-domiciled to US. They ask for lots of lots of information. I am searching for other bank now. EPB used to be good. Not now. Sad.

 

[JohnLocke]

EPB stopped their debit card for non-European accounts. Mine was cancelled with immediate notice.

Similar to AdvCash it's a Visa regulation that may have been the reason for this!

 

[Ghkxec]

Similar to AdvCash it's a Visa regulation that may have been the reason for this!

Is there any services out there like advance cash whos cards were not issued by wave crest holdings (from Gibraltar, Seychelles or similar countries)*. I just signup with them today just to learn that they cant issue new cards and who knows when this service will be available again. Looks like Wave crest will partner up with MasterCard but it is uncertain for now. I was using mychoice program before wave crest got cut off by visa.

 

[miner]

I believe that FATCA works both ways, all countries report to US about US citizens foreign account, and US report to all countries about non-US citizens accounts in US. I not sure about it, but it make sense this way.

I am pretty sure FACTA is one way only. That is the remarkable thing about it. The US forced everyone to enact FACTA and to deliver information to the US, while the US doesn't share information with anyone. The US wants to kill all tax haven but the US to stay the only tax haven. See panama papers.

 

[Milky Moon]

Banks in Puerto Rico and St. Lucia for sale -

Puerto Rico: Operational offshore bank for sale, $50M AUM, MC bank cards, direction connection with the FED for USD transfers. Included in the sale: office, online banking, compliance department, license.
Asking price $13.5 mill

St Lucia: Operational private bank for sale, $150M AUM. Inlcuded in the sale, office, website, correspondent banking network, online banking.
Asking price $7,500,000.

 

[Martin Everson]

I am pretty sure FACTA is one way only.

FATCA is 100% bilateral. Information flows in both directions. The great mystery is why people believe otherwise.

 

[Ghkxec]

FATCA is 100% bilateral. Information flows in both directions. The great mystery is why people believe otherwise.

It is not and nowhere you cant find information where is stated that works otherwise and according to wiki: The U.S. has yet to comply with FATCA itself, because as of 2017, it has not yet provided the promised reciprocity to its partner countries and it has failed to sign up to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

 

[Ghkxec]

if FATCA was working both ways than EU countries wouldn't have to bother getting US to sign up CRS

 

[Internationaloff]

The intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the United States and another jurisdiction is very important. Only FATCA is not enough!
There are several types of intergovernmental agreements (IGA):
- Reciprocal Model 1A Agreement, Preexisting TIEA or DTC;
- Nonreciprocal Model 1B Agreement, Preexisting TIEA or DTC;
- Nonreciprocal Model 1B Agreement, No TIEA or DTC;
- Model 2 Agreement, Preexisting TIEA or DTC;
- Model 2 Agreement, No TIEA or DTC.

 

[miner]

Banks in Puerto Rico and St. Lucia for sale -

Puerto Rico: Operational offshore bank for sale, $50M AUM, MC bank cards, direction connection with the FED for USD transfers. Included in the sale: office, online banking, compliance department, license.
Asking price $13.5 mill

St Lucia: Operational private bank for sale, $150M AUM. Inlcuded in the sale, office, website, correspondent banking network, online banking.
Asking price $7,500,000.

Source of information?

So in plain English, Euro Pacfic Bank EPB is for sale?

 

[Milky Moon]

They do not name names, but makes you wonder.

The St Lucia bank is either Hermes or EuroExim (probably the latter).