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Bankstown, New Jersey, is a suburb of Denver.
For nearly a century, foreign exchange bankers have struggled to pay their bills and meet their obligations to customers, including interest rates on their deposits.
Now, a growing number of foreign exchange institutions are struggling to pay the bills they have accrued over the years.
In a country where banks have long been considered the pillars of economic life, the financial crisis has brought about a sharp slowdown in the foreign exchange market.
Foreign exchange institutions have seen their share of the US economy shrink from 5.5% of gross domestic product in 2014 to just 3.5%.
In the past two years, the value of the currency traded has halved, from US$100bn in 2014 and US$90bn in 2015 to US$70bn and US£62bn in the first half of 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bankstown was once a thriving hub for foreign exchange activities.
But that changed in the mid-2000s when the banking system went bust.
A financial crisis left hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and caused banks and other financial institutions to default on their loans, leaving borrowers unable to repay their debts.
The banks and the government also took their share in losses, forcing the bank to write off the loans.
The losses eventually became the country’s debt, and it is now owed almost US$400bn, according the International Monetary Fund.
A decade later, the foreign currency market is once again struggling.
Banksters have seen some of their profits wiped out by losses from the financial collapse.
They have been unable to borrow the money needed to repay debts and have had to turn to the markets for capital.
Many foreign exchange providers have also suffered from the collapse of their business.
While the US is the world’s largest exporter of foreign currency, many other countries such as Australia, Japan, Canada, and Brazil also import more of the foreign currencies than they export, according a Bloomberg survey.
According to the International Finance Corporation, Australia imports about 20% of its foreign currency income, and Japan about 20%.
Brazil imports about 7%.
China imports about 10%.
Brazil and the US are the two biggest importers of foreign currencies in the world, and Australia and Japan are the largest exporters.
In Australia, foreign currency investors are estimated to be worth more than $200bn.
But while the Australian government has made efforts to boost foreign exchange markets, it has not been able to make the capital necessary to service the debt it has incurred in the run up to the crisis.
Foreign currency investors and their banks have been left holding the bag.
Some have had trouble meeting the bills owed.
Some are struggling even to pay interest on loans they have incurred.
“If we were to get the money out of the country, we would be in trouble,” said Peter Jepsen, the chief executive officer of the American Bankers Association.
The International Monetary Foundation estimates that the amount of foreign-exchange-related debt owed by banks is at least US$1.5 trillion.
Some of that debt has been accumulated by foreign exchange-focused companies.
Bankwest, a bank with more than 5,000 branches in the US, is the countrys largest foreign exchange provider, according its website.
“The US dollar is worth about $80bn [US£62.6bn] and the euro is worth approximately $30bn,” the website says.
But despite the risks, foreign-currency lenders have shown little interest in returning their customers.
“They’re looking at their accounts and they’re not really thinking about the long-term implications for them,” said Paul Jaffe, president of the International Association of Foreign Exchange Dealers.
“It is very frustrating for them.
They’re not looking at the long term, they’re looking right now at their bank balance sheets.”
