re: Setting up a bank account in the Cayman Islands?

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Back to OP: you claim to have more in common w/Eastern Europeans than with your fellow Americans. What? Seriously? Have you spent any time there? You are seriously idealizing a broad swath of the world that only recently emerged from authoritarian, centrally controlled government. Standards of living, attitudes toward government, beliefs about private sector investment, the level of govt involvement in private citizens' lives--these areas vary widely from country to country. Take Poland, for example. It's only been a democracy since 1989. It's been a member of the European Union since 2004. If you dislike gov't intervention, then perhaps an EU country isn't your "last resort" of choice. It ranks something like 26th on the global food security index....

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I did spend a week in Poland a few years back, absolutely fell in love with the country. And I completely disagree with your assessment.

As someone who is White, Catholic and Conservative I felt more at home in Poland than in the U.S. Poland, unlike the U.S., is a majority Catholic country and they aren't afraid to show their love of their religion. Poland, unlike the U.S., has also shown how much they love and will protect their culture. Poland (and other Eastern European countries), unlike Western Europe, are fighting back the Muslim invasion. Poland is also a Conservative country that will fight to stay conservative.

You talk about them being former Communist countries. I look at that as more of a positive than a negative. Anyone in their 30s or older remembers or was at least affected by the failure of the Soviet Union. They have seen Communism up close and I have a feeling they will fight with every last breath to prevent Communism from taking over Poland again. A Communist has about as much of a chance winning an election in Poland as a Neo-Nazi has of winning an election in Germany.

Poland has already gone through Communism and come out the other side. The U.S. still sadly has to make that journey, which means economically the worst days are ahead for the U.S.

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I am Catholic.

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me too so what? this is the money board

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Poland is majority Catholic

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so is the philippines and italy and croatia so what?

look man, you have went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY off topic here

just make your choice and move on ok? good luck

now this thread needs to die

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I did spend a week in Poland a few years back, absolutely fell in love with the country

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A whole week you say? That's definitely a solid basis upon which to make such a life-altering decision. I don't see what could go wrong here.

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I'd appreciate a link on the bank failure rate, if one exists.

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Oh, one exists alright. In fact it was the first link on the list I got when I googled "bank failures in the Cayman Islands."

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There are currently 149 banks operating in the Cayman Islands, 70 banks were recently closed.

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LINK

Thanks for the link. I'll check to see which of the closed banks have failed, as opposed to consolidated.

For example, Citi Bank's CitiTrust Caymen Islands. I've not read where Citi Bank's operations in the Caymen Islands have failed, but it certainly looks like a couple of their subsidiaries there have closed.

For whatever reason, I'd say 1/3 of the total banks on the island recently closing is pretty alarming.

Another link on the list I got says:

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There is no deposit guarantee scheme in the Cayman Islands: in the case of Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited failure its depositors will not get any compensation.

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LINK

The Cayman banks became famous as active money laundering facilitators.

I'm not interested enough in the banks "closed" there to research the reason they were closed but I suspect many of them were closed due to their proven money laundering activities.

The germane question is are banks and financial institutions domiciled in the Cayman Islands safe. If they were not, I highly doubt the two multinational banks that are in one of the captives I'm involved in for a layer of their liability would trust their money there. Or the reinsures would take us on. That's anecdotal. It's not as if the risk management department for US Bancorp is infallible. Large bank's judgment is sometimes very poor.

What is not anecdotal is that there are no unusual reports of bank failures, and their investments in US Treasuries. Some of which is mandated by their banking laws.

I got involved in this conversation becuase it concerned me. My concern was unwarranted. To tie this back to the OP, I'm not sure how an extremely large purchaser of US Treasuries, as is the Cayman Islands banking system, would be a hedge against the US. The deposits there are not insured (guaranteed is more accurate) like the FDIC here. But if one wants to crawl down that rabbit hole, we could have a discussion about the financial viability of the FDIC. If not for the implicit promise of a bailout, that program, much like NFIP, or underground storage tanks in certain states, is essentially bankrupt.

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You (and all other Americans) will just wake up one day, check your 401k and sit in agony as you see your balance with a bunch of 0's. And the sad thing is there will be nothing you, me or anyone else will be able to do about it.

What are you going to do? March on Washington? The U.S. military will have more guns, more bullets and better equipment and technology than you. At that point it will be too late.

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indoctrinated

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A strong choice of words. Would you care to elaborate?