Over the last few years, thousands of so-called "accidental Americans" have grudgingly accepted the unexpected news that the U.S. considers them to be U.S. citizens, even though they had lived their entire lives, since birth, as citizens of other countries – and as a result of this news, are considered to have tax-reporting and potentially tax-paying obligations.

A banking industry association in the Netherlands said on Friday that it was working with the American Embassy in the country to resolve the issue of American account-holders who lack "Tax Information Numbers," or U.S. Social Security numbers, but who are reluctant to get one ahead of imminently giving up their American citizenship. 

Questions some "accidental Americans" have been expressing about whether they need to acquire a Social Security Number if they are planning to renounce their U.S. citizenship appear to have been answered, at least with respect to those who qualify to renounce under a set of "new procedures" unveiled by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Friday.

The UK's Guardian newspaper and a couple of Belgian media organizations have published stories this weekend that follow up on concerns that thousands of Americans face the loss of their bank accounts at the end of this year, owing to these Americans' lack of the "Tax Identification Number" that their European banks require to comply with the U.S. tax evasion law known as FATCA.