Yes, opening or changing a bank account is a major hassle these days. Of course they have to be careful of money laundering but it seems these rules can be circumvented by the very crooks they are meant to be targeting.
There was a programme on Channel 4 a while ago (unfortunately I missed it but read about it). Several Central London estate agents were happy to go along with a reporter posing as a Russian politician who said he wished to hide his "dodgy" cash in UK property. In several instances, estate agents recommended law firms to help a buyer hide his identity. One estate agent named a “very, very good lawyer" whom he'd put in touch with a Soviet state minister in a deal worth £10 million.
It strikes me that the real crooks have the means to get round money laundering regulations whereas the rest of us go back and forth to banks and building societies with bits of paper, trying to prove that we are not international criminals.
