These bank account holders maintain deposits at banks outside the countries where they currently live and/or work. The reasons for keeping their money overseas are: 1. As importers, they constantly need to make payments in the form of hard currency remittances; as exporters, they prefer to keep a portion of their earnings in hard currencies. 2. As expatriates or highly paid local business executives, they prefer to keep a portion of their earnings in places where they consider the banking system to be more secure than that of the country where they are based. 3. As wise investors, they see the opportunity to save on taxes on interest earnings.