

As ar as I know PayPal in Europe is a bank with a Luxembourg banking license.

I'm wondering if they could pull the same shitty here. Considering that any bank, which freezes your account, doesn't provide you with any reason and actually refuses to talk to you may draw quite some ire from their respecive regulator.

Which is exactly what banks do if they decide someone is on the terrorism blacklist, or you are "risky" - often on absurdly weak grounds. Mistaken identity or not, guilty or not, it seems to leave the customers with no options. Freezing funds only seems to happen with terrorism related closures, but it does happen, and the bank is judge, jury and executioner.

One instance from search: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/feb/03/natwest-closed...

Not quite the same thing. From the article you link to :

You’ve been a loyal customer for years, but then a letter arrives saying your bank has decided it will shut your accounts, and you will have to take your business elsewhere. No reason is given and the decision is final.

So, yeah; a bank can get rid of you for any and no reason at all. But they can't just keep your money and stop talking to you.

That's nothing really new. Ask any American citizen trying to open an account abroad. They may be having an unusual hard time thanks to FATCA.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance...

Banks only do this because the Bank Secrecy Act/USA PATRIOT Act makes it exceedingly risky for them not to. In addition to the bank's regulatory risk there's also potential personal liability for the individual serving as Anti-Money Laundering Officer. That strongly incentivizes an AML program that's overly cautious.

It might seem like the bank is "judge, jury, and executioner" but that's really not the case. In addition to freezing your funds the bank has to alert the federal government of the account. The government then decides whether to move forward and try to seize the funds or whether the bank can release them to the account owner.

But as a "bank" there must be some requirement to provide a human interface for resolving these cases.

> Freezing funds only seems to happen with terrorism related closures

Try add the word Bet next time in the transfer's detail...

Or Cuba

Where is it "here"?

Any location where a Luxembourg bank license applies, ie. most of Europe, from Iceland to Greece.

In sharp contrast with spammers, which are given such free reign under GDPR? (In the comments it turns out it's a spam service.)
