Offshore Banking Unit - OBU

An OBU. Yes, you "need" one of these.

Um, why? Are you thinking that the British banking system is somehow more stable than ours? How about that of the Caymans. Or Dubai? Maybe Mauritius?

Yeah, not so much. Offshore bank accounts as held by individuals are often bright red flags that there's something shady going on by the American holding that account. Maybe they're trying to dodge paying losses of a lawsuit they know they'll lose. Or they have gambling debts that they want to shelter (and hide in witness protection programs where the mob can't reach them, i.e., Mars).

That's for individuals. For corporations, especially global, or rather, international ones, it's a very different story. Companies export goods from Silicon Valley to, say, France, all the time. Pomme, right? So Pomme, more commonly known as Apple, then keeps offshore bank accounts in the banks of global corporate banking operations, say, Bank of America or The Bank of France or The Bank of England or The Peoples Friendly Bank of China...so that transferring money and dealing with transactions is made way easier.

When a bank is wiring inside of its own tent, there are way fewer hoops to jump through, so this kind of structure is a lovely nice-to-have for global corporations.