On the surprisingly unglobal nature of banking in Portugal

in blurtlife •  4 years ago 

I finally got around to opening a Portuguese bank account today, which I apparently need if I want to buy land in the country.

I really wasn't in the mood for dealing with Portuguese systems this morning, but Friday is my weekly food shop day in Fundao, the local municipal centre where all the banks are, so it seemed silly to not get this chore out of the way at the same time.

I mean if you're going to drive up and down a mountain to get your weekly veg, you may as well take advantage of the drive to open another bank account, right?

I was also inspired as I saw this for sale this morning - it's 1.5 acres, about 5 KM from where I am atm (I love this area) and only 18K EU, with water:

Screenshot 20201211 at 18.35.17.png

I went with Montepio bank - my landlady banks with them and said they were courteous and friendly, which they were, and the branch had the added advantage of being in a little shopping complex, which meant I could wait outside (due to covid restrictions) while still being 'inside' which was nice, given that it was raining today.

After a 30 minute wait (!) I finally got to sit down with a nice lady who had a nice vibe and we used Google Translate to assist in the process of getting me an account opened.

This is the first account I've opened in branch in ages - despite the language barrier it was quite an easy process - I just needed my NIF number, proof of address, passport, and they were all photocopied, photographed using a secure iPad, I did the old signature on the Pad - twice because I'd forgotten I'd used my 'neat' signature on my passport (worth remembering!), said 'yes' to online account option, which was odd, given that I'm used to to online being standard, and that was that!

I had to make a 250 EU deposit there and then for the privilege which seemed a bit steep, fortunately I just happen to be in the habit of carrying a phat wedge of EU around with me, so I had that on me.

I got a receipt, although having just spent the last few evenings watching Andreas Antonopoulos videos I was painfully aware that I was effectively lending this institution that 250 EU and they were under no obligation whatsoever to pay me back.

How's that for suck-it-up-irony!

So much for the borderless financial system

It's kind of an odd feeling in a Global age having to set up a national bank account.

I mean here we are in an international age, I can send thousands of EU to Kraken to buy crypto which is even more borderless than fiat, and yet I NEED a specifically Portuguese bank account to buy land.

Not that I'm surprised, I mean wherever you buy land, that's going to tie you in to the national property system, and pin you down to that country, so being double-pinned by the state and a national bank makes little difference, but it does make one reflect on the nature of 'borderless' finance - as soon as you want to translate your finances into anything tangible to give yourself a sense of physical security, that chunk of your wealth becomes 'pinned' to the state and national systems.

If you want to maintain your finances in a truly global, borderless, free floating assemblage, I guess it means you just have to avoid buying anything tangible - and rent for ever, which I guess is an option.

I can't ever see blockchain offering a solution for ownership of real land independent of the state that is truly free from the dictates of the nation state system, and whichever national banks they deem to be suitable for making property transactions, at least not without some real serious real-life violent conflict.

I mean land is real, after all, money: that's just numbers in hyperspace.

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