One would need to ask some American lawyers on this. I got the impression it was the inability for some of these state/regional American banks unable to direct foreign currency money payment for an American citizen in large. Not sure.

What happened was that the American had to ask their American bank to go to Thomas Cook Currency exchange to convert the money to Canadian dollars and then from TC back to bank.

But it sounded abit inefficient.

Perhaps our American folks here can confirm:

Can you walk into any of your state or regional U.S. banks and get straight Canadian cash? I am not talking about national banks in the U.S.

I can go into any of our national Canadian banks (we have no regional/provincial based banks) and ask for hard American cash. No service charges. I get it immediately in my hand, especially if I am their regular bank customer. And I do. I use small U.S. cash for muffins, coffee when visiting the U.S.

Even better 1-2 of Canadian banks in Toronto, you go to an ATM machine that specifically dispenses only U.S. cash and bypass currency conversion service charges if one is their regular customer. Only currency conversion, that's all.

It is located in major business section in Toronto where there are alot of business travellers. I used to work in the district and passed by the machine nearly daily.

This same Canadian bank is penetrating into the U.S. now with more branches.

National banks with 1 set of its own respective policies with strong federal law oversight, makes alot more sense and is a whole lot less confusing for the financial marketplace for consumers who need to assess options and want long-term, stable relationship with their bank. Especially when people are mobile these days where they live across state/provincial borders during their lifetime, etc.