My question involves personal finance in the State of: New York (and federal)
Does the United States have any laws or regulations on citizens opening foreign currency denominated bank accounts that are substantially more onerous than every other country?
Any bank in Canada will let its Canadian customers open a chequing account denominated in US dollars, and my relatives in England have no trouble keeping US dollars and euros in their bank accounts, but I've called over a dozen banks in the US and none of them will let me open a checking account denominated in Canadian dollars. (Except Sun Trust, at any rate, but their closest branch is in Washington DC.)
Several bank employees suggested it was illegal to open a foreign currency denominated account in the US, though one bank employee didn't know what the word "denominated" meant so I'm not quite sure they all knew the law as well as they thought they did.
So is there any (legal) reason why no US bank will open a FCDA? Or is it just a decision on their part, since FCDAs might cut down on the truly massive fees they charge for currency conversion? (Last bank I asked offered 0.96/1.08 to buy/sell CAD; I've never seen a spread that large outside of shady money-changers in tourist centers.)
If you know of any onerous legal restrictions on FCDAs in the US, please let me know. And if you know of any banks that offer FCDAs (or exchange currency at reasonable rates), I'd like to know about that too!
Otherwise, I will have several hundred Canadian dollars in an envelope for a year or few until I go back north to spend them.

