Fed to Allow Foreign Currency Bank Accounts
A year from now, you'll be able to walk into a local bank and open a savings account in Japanese yen, West German marks or British pounds.</br></br>If you're a manufacturer doing business abroad or an investor who likes to speculate in foreign currency, the new foreign currency accounts should make these activities easier.</br></br>The Federal Reserve Board recently gave banks permission to offer these accounts, but the board delayed the effective date to Dec. 31, 1989. This will give the Fed time to work out currency deposit ground rules.</br></br>For many years, the Fed discouraged banks from opening foreign currency accounts. In 1973, then-Fed chairman Arthur Burns turned down a request from the Bank of America, and the policy had been restated over the years.</br></br>However, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and the present members of the board apparently feel differently, and they voted Dec. 23 to allow banks to go ahead.