Who actually believes 'Comorian' banks?

[ilke]

Was feeling a little bored, and decided to explore the wonderful world of 'bank licenses' issued by Comorian islands.

What really confuses me - why do these banks exist? Who actually falls for them? How do they actually earn any money?

Although these regulators (if you can even call them that) are pretty useless, they still require the bank to have some capital.

If anybody wants to have a bit of a laugh - let's examine a couple

Exim Credit Bank - Exim Credit Bank | Cross Border Financing - Stopped listing its Comorian license by the worst-looking of the 3 regulators (Comoros International Banking Authority). Now, it has apparently transformed into an MSB which they refer to as a Fintech bank. They also simply assert that UAE licensing is not required even though they provide banking for UAE customers (lol). "Forfaiture" is also a classic.

Dafri Bank - Halaman default - They actually deleted the content from their shared web host a couple weeks ago. What a bank! They identify as a global citizen on X.

Financiere Privee Jean de Montpellier & Cie Limited - Home - FINANCIERE PRIVEE JEAN DE MONTPELLIER & CIE LIMITED - Now, how bad of a situation do you have to be in to have a Comorian bank sent into liquidation? That's what happened here - and they've been marked as in liquidation on MISA for 3 years. They also charge 2K for account opening, 1.5% on received funds, and 20K to close the account. What's the target audience here?

DTS Circle Bank - DTSCB | Home - Yet another CIBA "regulated' company. Forgets how to use capital letters sometimes. Has practically no content. Where is any trust created?

European Chartered Bank - Europe Chartered Bank – Europe Chartered Bank - Has virtually no content, except for stating they don't adhere to CRS. Who sees this and thinks "I want a bank account at this institution" (if we can even call it that)?

AC Bank Dubai - AC BANK - Again, pretty much nothing. Apparently support for USD, EUR, GBP and discussing not following CRS. Does this actually appeal to some kind of individual?

I was under the impression that people with enough money to explore offshore banking would not be astonished by such institutions. Am I wrong? Do you think these companies actually make money?

Nothing you can particularly learn here but it was an interesting topic I wanted to discuss a little bit.

 

[Sols]

Enough people believe in it that the scams keep going. The vast majority of people don't check regulatory status and vet the reputability of the regulator and jurisdiction. They google something and find a good enough looking website with all the things they want to hear (non-CRS, multicurrency, cards).

I think that people who have an interest enough to come to OCT to discuss these things are an outlier. But even here we get people recommending or asking about banks in the Comoros.

The target audiences are clueless people and people who might know better but can't get into normal financial institutions.

And there's no denying that some of these banks work, at least well enough to function for these clueless and/or desperate people. At least, for a while. But at what price...