On October 28th, 2013 international wire fees are going up. This is due to the remittance transfer rule amendment to Regulation E from the Dodd-Frank Act. Ironically, as a ‘consumer protection’ amendment, these new stipulations are suppose to help protect and disclose more information to those that are sending money abroad. The issue is that it really does the opposite of that–it simply makes international wires more expensive at the cost of those who can afford it the least.

The law was made to ensure that more information is disclosed up front so that the consumer knows what they are getting into, but what it seems to be doing instead is creating new regulatory cost that are being passed on to consumers.  Waller Law estimates that these new regulations will cause for, “200 business hours [per institution] to develop initial compliance systems, and an ongoing investment of 9.5 hours per month and 16 additional hours annually to update and maintain disclosure and error-resolution procedures.” Sadly, these cost can already be seen effecting customers across the United States.  JP Morgan Chase has announced that they will no longer be offer outbound international wire services in response to this new regulation, and several other large institutions still have not announced what their response will be quite just yet.

Quite simply, there are now going to be more regulations for those that are sending their money abroad, and thus those cost of the new regulation shall be passed on to consumers.  Where I work the wire fee has not increased, but it will take at least two weeks to arrive at its destination. If you would like more information on the new regulations, please see this document from Consumer Finance.

Long story short: International wires are become more complicated and expensive to preform, which gives one all the more reason to use Bitcoin and to break with this system of legitimized theft.