British bank cuts relations with 40 embassies
05/10/2013 00:00
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The Albanian Embassy in London interrupted its obligations with one of
the biggest banks in the world, and the biggest in Britain (HSBC), not
because of the relations that our embassy had with the bank, but due to
the problems that the bank itself had, after which they decided to
interrupt the accounts of 40 embassies, among which is that of Vatican,
Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia,
Mongolia, Armenia, Nigeria, etc.
The British Media have reported that the United States have fined this bank with 1.4 billion EUR last year after money laundering claims that were allegedly carried out by Mexican drug cartels, terrorists and Iran.
The Albanian Ambassador to London, Mal Berisha, said for Top Channel that “the problem was very complicated, since Foreign Office claims that banks have a private and commercial relation with embassies, and the independence of private banks cannot be touched. Meanwhile, Britain doesn’t have a state owned bank. In the British concept this is right, but in the Albanian concept it might sound strange”.
According to the British Foreign Ministry, this issue should be resolved through the Albanian Bank. After several meetings in Tirana, and also after the efforts and the strong relations with the former Consul of Honor of Albania in Britain, Mr.Alexander Duma, the son of the renowned diplomat in Albania’s monarchic era, Dervish Duma, the Albanian Embassy has opened an account at the Metro Bank, a Canadian-American Bank.
The Ambassador and the staff have no problems with the personal accounts in the NATWEST Bank. Some of the Foreign Embassies in London, affected from this decision, have resolved this problem with branches of their own banks because they are members of the European Union, such as Croatia, Slovenia and Lithuania.
Top Channel
