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HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

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Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#91

Post by csomar »

sschueller wrote: post #9

That's Google's SafeNet. HSBC picked a level that causes this. Google manages the blacklist of apps. 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. People in Switzerland 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. The US has started to sancti…

It's more insidious than that. The US is actively working on dismantling the Swiss off-shore banking system. It started with US clients and expanded from there (see: https://www.privatebankerinternational.com/news/hsbc-swiss-p...)

Guess where all these un-banked HNWI are going and who is offering them a gold card to run their businesses from?

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#93

Post by embedding-shape »

pdpi wrote: post #80
mytailorisrich wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When in the EU the UK was actually one of the countries (if not the country) that made freedom of movement the easiest because, indeed, they did not care. You could move there with zero involvement or knowledge from the authorities.

Yeah, moving here involved basically buying a plane ticket, and, after I got here, booking an appointment to get a National Insurance number (basically equivalent to an American Social Security number). Never occurred to me that moving to any other EU country might be harder than that.

> Never occurred to me that moving to any other EU country might be harder than that.

I don't think it is? I moved to Spain from other EU country the same way, basically bought the cheapest one-way plane ticket I could find, spent ~1 month here before deciding I wanted to live here, then got myself the local residence card one morning and that's about it. Everything else just worked by using my passport in the meantime.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#94

Post by YawningAngel »

embedding-shape wrote: post #20
sschueller wrote: post #9

That's Google's SafeNet. HSBC picked a level that causes this. Google manages the blacklist of apps. 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. People in Switzerland 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. The US has started to sancti…

> 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?

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n...

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#95

Post by embedding-shape »

throwaway290 wrote: post #89
embedding-shape wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

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

Having no ties to businesses or individuals located in Russia. Like myself and countless of others.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#96

Post by embedding-shape »

gambiting wrote: post #75
embedding-shape wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

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.

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.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#98

Post by embedding-shape »

_ache_ wrote: post #68
embedding-shape wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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?

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#99

Post by ben_w »

pdpi wrote: post #80
mytailorisrich wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When in the EU the UK was actually one of the countries (if not the country) that made freedom of movement the easiest because, indeed, they did not care. You could move there with zero involvement or knowledge from the authorities.

Yeah, moving here involved basically buying a plane ticket, and, after I got here, booking an appointment to get a National Insurance number (basically equivalent to an American Social Security number). Never occurred to me that moving to any other EU country might be harder than that.

My experience moving to Germany from the UK in 2018 was only one step harder than that from bureaucracy — two appointments, one for social security and the other for an ID card. Not even that I had a much poorer grasp of the German language than I realised was a problem*, as the bureaucracy is mostly bilingual and when it isn't has interpreters.

The only actual hard part was just that the rental market in Berlin has vastly more demand than supply.

* hopefully next month I pass a B1 exam, which tells you how hard it has been for me to get fluent.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#100

Post by csomar »

kjksf wrote: post #86
hkt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An Italian citizen who was debanked essentially because Trump didn't like her: https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp... When it comes to this kind of thing, an injury to one is an injury to all and we need to not tolerate it. At minimum, we need regulations guaranteeing that Visa and MasterCard, as well as participating banks, aren't allowed to debank anyone without judicial oversight. Make the…

[flagged]

> that it has anything to do with Trump

That's an irrelevant detail right? The point is, she was debanked because someone in the US didn't like her, regardless of whom this person is.

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