Since when do you need ID to do foreign exchange here?

Jeremy Sproket

Weird. I was in an exchange kiosk today and I asked for $500 dollars to give as a gift to someone and I was asked for ID for "money laundering reasons", I duly obliged and handed over my passport card. I'm in favour of transparency and reducing crime but how does showing ID somehow eliminate that? Unless they keep a dossier of people's IDs.

There was no queue so I chatted to her about it because I was interested in the legislation.

I asked is it anything over €400 regardless of the currency I'm buying and they said no, it's over 400 in any currency. So I asked would I have to show it for buying £380 (€450)? They said "no, that's under 400 units" ..... then I said what about if I wanted to hand over 1000 South Korean Won for Euro? Which is like €10 ... yes, that's well over the 400 limit 🤔🤔🤔

What if I wanted to buy 200 Kuwaiti Dinar ?? No, you won't need ID....

I agree with anti money laundering measures, but surely it makes more sense if the legislation was in terms of Euro ... ie, it applied to values in equivalent to €400 or equivalent in foreign currency. There's no consistency with it.

L1011

European AML regulations, MLD4 or MLD5 - not going to check which one it was. So its not "here", its "anywhere in the EU that follows the law"

Ubbquittious

This anti money laundering craic is going too far. Just an excuse for more government big brother

RulesOfNature

Lol the fvck? I converted 2k back in christmas 2019 and there wasn't any of that crap. Yeah right as if the f*cking russian mob is using airport kiosks to launder cash.

Elmer Blooker

If you use an accountant for your affairs you now must provide a utility bill and photo ID ... as if someone is going to hand their accountant a Tesco bag stuffed with €50 notes and say ‘hide this for me will ya’

3DataModem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118125935#Comment_118125935

You'd be surprised. How on earth are airport kiosks staying in business in Europe.

RulesOfNature

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118127021#Comment_118127021

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh possibly from the tens of thousands of people coming in from different countries every single day wanting to exchange currencies?

Jeremy Sproket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118125127#Comment_118125127

Yeah but it's the lack of consistency that has me confused.

The teller told me that it's 400 of any currency, so I asked would I have to show ID for buying 300 Kuwaiti Dinar ..., no, only anything over 400.

What about buying 500 dollars? That's considerably less than 300 Dinars .... yes, because it's more than 400 ...????

What if I handed over a wad of thousands of Vietnamese Dong? Only worth a few Euro ... ID please .... it's more than 400.

I asked her was it 400 in the target currency or 400 in the source currency (if that makes sense) ... she didn't seem to know 🤣

I always carry ID with me, as I believe it should be mandatory for all uses. Collect post office package .... ID please. Making a lodgment of cash or any financial transaction ... ID please. Irish people seem adverse to it. It's weird.

dxhound2005

If you have some way of getting a message to the company that runs the kiosk, you would be doing a public service. Like you say, someone from Vietnam or Zimbabwe, would be forced to provide ID to get a very small amount of money. The staff member surely needs retraining, unless the company management is short on common sense.

Jeremy Sproket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183088#Comment_118183088

She didn't even record it or fill out the details, just glanced at it. It could easily have been my mothers!

If the reason for this is to stop the proceeds of crime from being laundered, then it's not working.