I'm not familiar with European banks, so could someone please explain the implications of being able to get an account here. I don't quite get what SEPA is or what the big deal of having IBAN numbers is.
Anyone in Europe (the civilized part) can transfer Euro to you for free or minimal charge. You can do the same the other way. SEPA transfers are quite fast. The regulations say maximum D+1 (banking days), and in my experience same day transfer is quite common if you send early. D is either the day you issue the transfer, if you do it before an afternoon deadline published by your bank, or the first bank day afterwards.
SEPA bank transfers are not harmed by weird USAnian regulations which forbid you to send money where you want (e.g. to companies with relations to Cuba). Some bank I tried for one day refused to send money to Intersango because of some issues with an USA based intermediary bank, and I guess you must have a lot of these problems if you are trading all over the world. (I filed a complaint to my national regulators. The bank called me the day after with a lot of excuses and sent me a compensation because they hadn't specified the restrictions imposed by the intermediate bank in their terms of service. Tried the bank once due to free international transfers, but I would rather pay a fee than cope with unreliable service.)