Selling a property

I am selling a property for a considerable amount of money... Has anyone got any experience getting a large amount of dollars transfered out of the Philippines to an overseas bank..

 

I had to send a pile of cash to my ex-wife in Canada. I choose to draw a Managers cheque on one bank and use a second bank to do the wire transfer. Better rates at the second bank.
Both banks wanted to see an email showing where the money was going. Neither bank looked closely at the documents. I think it was just a formality of filling in the blanks. They took copies for their files.
Go figure.

 

Just as a matter of interest (but no reply required if this involves your privacy) what type of e-mail they asked for?

 

The contents of the email was from my ex's lawyers. It just said as per our settlement agreement please send $Xxx to the lawyers name, lawyers account number and Swift code. That got me the bank draft from bank #1.
Bank #2 relied on the same email. My guess is this was mostly a formality for show.

 

Useful to know. My wife sent about 1m pesos to a family member of hers from her abroad bank account using remittances (i.e. more than one) for a business venture. When the money was repaid in one full transaction from Phil bank to Phil bank (i.e into my wife's Phil bank account) she was called to her bank to show documentation proving the validity of the funds. Not complaining - best to be careful, but it all matters HOW things are done. Remittances have an upper limit of about P480,000 currently.

 

The issue is money laundering laws. The bank only needs a statement from you as to the source of the funds for their reporting.

The bank is only the reporter, not the enforcer. Whatever you say or submit to them they will accept.

 

I agree it is all about money laundering - except all these rules as usual affect the small guys and the wealthy crooked elite freely transfer money around the world, as in the UK where millions (if not billions) of dirty money has been allowed in and some put into multi-million pound properties.

I am not sure "Whatever you say or submit to them they will accept" is true - they have to report certain transactions to higher powers and will do so.

I always feel safer following the rules as all governments have the power to seize our money at will and force us to do all the legal work to get it back. Unfortunately they do so, even if you are being legal! In 1933, US citizens had to sell their gold to the government (huge fines or imprisonment if they did not) at a relatively low price (about $21) - the government revalued it in 1934 to $35 and sold it back into the markets at the much higher price!

 

With money and banks (and governments), it's always the same thing.
As the saying goes: "if you owe the bank 10,000 then you have a problem; if you owe the bank 100,000,000 then the bank has the problem".

 

And if the government owes you 100,000 you wait - if you owe them 10,000 you go to prison.