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To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (38138)6/2/2010 2:44:02 AM
From: Spekulatius  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 78752
 
Jurgis, yes bank transfers are common in West Europe. I had never written a check before I came to the US in my entire life - the overnight bank transfers are much safer, faster and more convenient.

I know some folks who use Paypal to transfer money in foreign countries but theer can be issues with the receiving bank. As far as the transfer of physical cash is concerned quite a few institutions could do that - the mail offices would be a natural way since pretty their are ubiquitous virtually everywhere. Cellphone companies are similar, if the counterparty has a cellphone they are going to have access to one of those stores, which also could handle the cash. I know that some cellpone companies in China (?) are looking into that - as this could become a nice side business.

FWIW I think that BofA provides a transfer service to Mexico but I am not sure how well it works. i think that Visa , Mastercard and the like also are natural players since they have already an ATM network in place. I really think there is no technical hurdle, all it takes is the will to do it and overcome a bias of some people who have always done it the WU way. but I think the new generation who grew up with cellphones and the internet will scoff what is out there and would try something better/cheaper/more convenient.



To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (38138)12/9/2010 1:05:36 PM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 78752
 
OT - MA

Here is a letter I sent to MasterCard investor relations. I encourage all other MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and Amazon shareholders to contact the respective companies regarding their suppression of free speech via closure of Wikileaks accounts. If anyone willing to raise these issues at the shareholder meetings, that would be great too.

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As a MasterCard shareholder, I am deeply concerned about the steps MasterCard took to prevent people from donating to Wikileaks using MasterCard products. It seems that MasterCard management took unilateral decision of questionable legality that does not serve the MasterCard users or shareholders. Instead of supporting the will of the people to donate to organization fighting for freedom of speech, the management decided to bow to the political pressure of unknown actors and censor the will of their clients. This is unacceptable and the decision should be reversed immediately.

At the same time MasterCard spends no time or effort to prevent payment to clearly illegal organizations such as Ku Klux Klan. This double standard shows obviously that the decision to close Wikileaks account was not based on any rules or regulations, but on impulsive management decision that MasterCard clients, employees and shareholders will come to regret. It is not too late to turn around, reopen Wikileaks accounts and apologize to people affected by this MasterCard decision.

I propose that MasterCard management and Board of Directors review what went wrong in this decision, reverse it and ensure that there will be no future decisions that stop MasterCard users expressing their free will by sending payments to legal political and media organizations worldwide. If the decision is not made now, I expect that it will be raised at MasterCard shareholder meeting with all the publicity that will entail.