On Monday 24 August 2009 17:38:42 Andy Robinson wrote: > 2009/8/17 Chris Withers <[email protected]>: > > Yeah, it would be nice for those of us in the UK too. My cheque has > > finally arrived, but now I need to go find a bank branch, etc, etc. I > > can't believe that cheque is the cheapest or easiest option for anyone > > concerned, even those of us in the UK... > > Unfortunately, due to the current UK money-laundering regulations, > it's very hard to send a wire to someone outside the UK.
How is this compatible with the whole single payment zone thing? International transfers in Europe are supposed to cost no more than domestic transfers, and this isn't just a Euro-zone thing - they've supported this in Norway, Sweden and Switzerland for a few years now. And I don't buy into the "money-laundering" excuse, either. The banks in Europe, at least, all know about each other and they all have to share information with the authorities for tax and customs purposes, anyway. (I know it's not an excuse being made by anyone here, but when some manager or executive gives "money-laundering" as the reason for something like this, it's an excuse - there are already controls in place when someone opens an account.) > UK banks are fairly free and easy about setting up chequebook-only accounts > for charities and societies; but even if you have a proper corporate > account with full electronic banking services, sending a payment > overseas (where a lot of speakers will be) requires someone to > physically queue up at the bank's special services desk when it's open > and sign a bunch of forms (and sender or receiver gets a £12 charge). Yes. It's marginally cheaper to get a bank draft issued and present it to a foreign bank, once the handling fees are deducted at the final destination. The taxpayer bails out the banks and the customer service remains as abysmal as ever, presumably propped up by tame legislation and manufactured knee-jerk "public sentiment". All this said, the usual caveat about it being a volunteer-run conference still applies. Please don't underestimate the amount of time spent by volunteers even on things which sound trivial - it all adds up. Paul _______________________________________________ Europython-improve mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython-improve
