[openssl-users] good riddance to PayPal

[Steve Marquess]

On 05/06/2016 04:40 AM, Michel wrote:
> Hi steve,
> 
> Isn't it conceivable to ask one of the European payment service provider to
> sponsor you by offering a free account / accesss to their plateform ?
> I know some which are secured only with the help of your product.
> They should be proud to help in return.
> :-)

In my role as the OpenSSL beancounter I've run into a more general issue
with non-U.S. banks. The great bulk of our donation funding comes from
outside the U.S. and is spent outside the U.S., and really shouldn't
need to reside in or even transit through the U.S. But, since I'm
American and know that country best that's where I set up the OpenSSL
legal entities and bank accounts years ago.

I've been trying unsuccessfully to transition our funding to a non-U.S.
bank for some time. But, we're an unusual organization (banks don't like
unusual) and I also am operating under a severe handicap known as
"FATCA", the TL;DR of which being that when a bank sees I'm calling from
a U.S. number and speaking with an obvious U.S. accent they can't
dismiss me fast enough, usually before I get the chance to emphasize
that no "U.S. person" needs to have signature authority for the account.
I've been through this drill with dozens of banks, from Estonia to
Singapore. We've gotten as far as opening an account with an initial
deposit, only to have that bank close the account for unspecified
reasons a week later. I've spent an unbelievable amount of time on this.

If there is a non-U.S. bank willing to have OpenSSL as a customer I'd
love to talk to them. We've even created non-U.S. corporate entities (in
IoM and BVI) for that purpose; after many months they remain bankless.

-Steve M.

-- 
Steve Marquess
OpenSSL Software Foundation
20-22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU
United Kingdom
+44 1785508015
+1 301 874 2571 direct
marquess at opensslfoundation.org
stevem at openssl.org