Casino accepting cheques - help please

[Mr Overheads]

I have a client with a problem. And thought some of the HNW's on here might have personal banking contacts that can help.

Client is a Bricks & Mortar UK Casino for Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) customers, nearly all customers are from overseas.

Cheques can easily be for £2m. Casino's can't give credit in the UK, hence the unbanked cheques instead. Rest of World Casino's can (i.e. gamble 'on the house'), so if they are to compete internationally for customers they need to be able to accept cheques in lieu of credit.

Does anyone know of a bank that will take international cheques? Client receives over £200m a year (not all gets banked) of International BACS and Cheques (cheques provided and held, if customer doesn't pay by BACS in 7 days, cheque gets banked, surprisingly bad debt is under 1%, gamblers are an honest lot). Their bank has said from end of March they will no longer accept International Cheques (for all customers apparently).

So does anyone have a bank or banking specialist they can recommend/refer me to for an initial chat. It's a triple whammy of gambling and cheques and international all of which raise alarm bells at banks for risk, money laundering etc.

Client has asked us because we've just resolved some issues with their ability to take merchant card payments given changes in contactless rules and reduced their costs too.

[Mr_Megalomaniac]

Mr Overheads said:

I have a client with a problem. And thought some of the HNW's on here might have personal banking contacts that can help.

Client is a Bricks & Mortar UK Casino for Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) customers, nearly all customers are from overseas.

Cheques can easily be for £2m. Casino's can't give credit in the UK, hence the unbanked cheques instead. Rest of World Casino's can (i.e. gamble 'on the house'), so if they are to compete internationally for customers they need to be able to accept cheques in lieu of credit.

Does anyone know of a bank that will take international cheques? Client receives over £200m a year (not all gets banked) of International BACS and Cheques (cheques provided and held, if customer doesn't pay by BACS in 7 days, cheque gets banked, surprisingly bad debt is under 1%, gamblers are an honest lot). Their bank has said from end of March they will no longer accept International Cheques (for all customers apparently).

So does anyone have a bank or banking specialist they can recommend/refer me to for an initial chat. It's a triple whammy of gambling and cheques and international all of which raise alarm bells at banks for risk, money laundering etc.

Client has asked us because we've just resolved some issues with their ability to take merchant card payments given changes in contactless rules and reduced their costs too.

This is obviously a bit of a complex situation as far as the bank is concerned for high value international cheques, but apparently NatWest, Santander, and Bank of Scotland will do it. I'm not about HSBC, but I do know that Barclays and Nationwide will not do it.