December 21, 2011: This month Germany's HypoVereinsbank became the country's latest financial institution to tell American citizens and its clients living in the United States that their brokerage accounts are no longer welcome at the bank. The HypoVereinsbank is closing their accounts.

The Deutsche Bank already made the move earlier this year and Commerzbank is reportedly considering a similar move. German banks are not the only ones in Europe to tell Americans that their investment accounts are not welcome. Britain's HSBC and Switzerland's Credit Suisse have also said they will no longer open or maintain brokerage accounts for Americans.

Since January 2011 foreign banks are required to report US customers' security holdings to American authorities, including details about gains and losses on holdings and whether or not those gains and losses are short-term or long-term according to U.S. tax provisions. In effect, the new rules make foreign banks an enforcement arm for U.S. tax compliance, as America is reported to be seeking an additional $800 million in tax revenue by closing a perceived tax loophole.

"We are not happy with the new requirements. They are a tremendous burden for the banks," a spokeman for Germany's national association of banks told the German edition of the "Financial Times" newspaper. According to him, whether or not to cancel customer accounts would be a decision that each bank would have to make on its own.

Washington claims that the requirements are meant to make it easier to prosecute Americans trying to dodge taxes on their investments. But some analysts in the German financial sector think the rules are really designed to make it harder for Americans to invest money abroad, thereby forcing them to deposit their cash in American banks rather than sending the money overseas to a foreign investment account.

Since normal banking activity is not yet included in the reporting requirements, none of the banks have said that they will prohibit Americans from having "normal" bank accounts like a savings account. However, that could change in the years ahead. In 2013 the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act comes into effect. That will require banks to report more information about account holders to American tax authorities, although specifics about what the law will require remain elusive at this point.