Consumer complaint received 2020-08-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
Complaints against BOA for alleged abuse of discretion and systemic discrimination<br/> Im a foreign resident in the US. I believe I do nothing wrong. But just because of Bank of Americas misleading sales, abuse of discretions, and possible systematic discrimination against ethnic minorities, all my five well-run BOA accounts were closed. In this difficult COVID-19 pandemic time, I cant pay online. I have to go out, again and again, to solve various financial and shopping issues for my family regardless of the risk, in the area with the highest number of infected in my state. 

Especially when I simply searched in XXXX and inquired about the CPDBs complaint data of BOA, I had to suspect that this was BOAs systematic discrimination against disadvantaged customer groups and malicious abuse of the discretionary power granted by the law, to maximize the BOAs own interests., Minimize their risk, and deliberately harm the interests of customers, as the similar discrimination cases of XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX in XXXX. 

Therefore, I submit the complaint against BOA and ask them to explain the reason for closing my account. I also strongly recommend CFPB implement an investigation to BOA for their suspicion of abuse of discretionary power and systemic discrimination to minority customers. 

I. The beginning of the nightmare stems from my trust and goodwill to the BOA Im a foreign XXXX   XXXX living in the US for two years with my family and prepared to apply for my second XXXX XXXX in a university. That means I need to transfer my foreign income to my bank account in the US regularly. To obey the law, I've reported all my foreign income and foreign bank accounts to the IRS and the US Department of Treasury. 

Even though I only stay here for two years, I maintain an excellent BOA credit record, so BOA actively contacted me and invited me to open a golden advantage saving account. Unexpectedly, this was a trap, and the nightmare began. 

II. I followed BOAs recommendation, supported their business, but they closed all my accounts, and refused to give any explanation. 

The following is the general course of the whole thing : A. In XXXX, the peak of the pandemic, I suddenly received a phone call from a BOA banker, and she tried to sell me their " Golden advantage saving account. '' I should have refused because during the pandemic, to take care of my children studying at home, my XXXX income also dropped sharply, and I need to rely on my foreign deposits to survive. But I was still trying my best to supporting various small businesses in my community and donated for the front-line workers here. So, when I got the selling call from BOA, I choose to support their business during this difficult time. 

B. I drove to their branch office wearing a face mask. During the process to open the advantage account, I told the banker again about my occupation, I will transfer my income from my foreign bank account to my BOA account, and the approximate amount. The banker encouraged me to do the transfer as soon as possible. Their explanation was more average balance in my account, the higher interest rate. 

C. To pay for my familys living expenses during the pandemic and my university tuition, I transferred my income from foreign banks to my BOA bank twice. The second transfer was on XX/XX/XXXX. The amount is within the total income Ive reported to the IRS. All from my same-named own foreign bank account. 

D. Three days later, on XX/XX/XXXX ( according to their letters XXXX, BOA closed all my two credit cards and three check/saving accounts without any email or phone call. Until XX/XX/XXXX, I received the paper letters from BOA. When I try to discuss with BOA, of course, they stated that according to the agreement, they have the right to close my account without any explanation, and this is a final and wont be reconsidered decision, just for business decision. I believe I do nothing wrong, except trust BOAs selling call, try to support them, followed all their recommendations in this high-risk pandemic time and high-risk area. 

III. Its not an individual case, it is suspected of systematic discrimination and basing BOAs cost-benefit analysis, another XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

A. Far more cases than CFPB records I simply searched the similar Bank close my account without explanation cases on the internet and CFPB database and found tremendous cases. 

There are 859 complaints in the past three years about BOA closed their account without any explanation in the CFPB database. many of them are old American, servicemember, and immigrants. in particular, some cases occurred during the epidemic, forcing vulnerable senior customers to go out to seek help and solve the problems. 
There are more than 38,800 searching results from my ethnic network about BOA closed my account without any explanation. Many of them just international students, new immigrants from my country who need financial relationships with their motherland and believe they do nothing wrong. 
There are more than 60,500,000 searching results from XXXX about BOA closed my account without explanation. 

We all know that not everyone knew CFPB that has just been established three years ago, and not everyone has the time and ability to file a complaint. The true number of cases should be far more than 859. 

B. Similar discrimination case just two years ago In that massive amount of cases, the BOA always says, according to the agreement, they have the right to close the account without any explanation and its a business decision, a final and wont be reconsidered decision. Its quite doubted that this original intention was to protect the discretionary power of the rights and interests of both the bank and the consumer. Still, in practice, it has evolved into a black box only controlled by the bank. It is simple to maximize the banks own interests and minimize risks. Rudely harm the interests of innocent customers, especially minorities. It not only a personal hypothesis but also confirmed by the Discrimination cases of XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX  in XXXX, especially the XXXX XXXX case in XXXX. According to the XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX report on XX/XX/2018, XXXX XXXX Accused of Harming Fraud Victims by Closing Accounts, it said : a bank is required by law to investigate whether criminal activity has occurred ( but the bank ) had a simpler solutionclose the account and drop the customer. An ex-staffs complaints reveal the reason, instead of looking into fraud claims, the bank would instead save money by simply closing accounts under the pretext of a business decision. 

C. BOA maybe have exactly the same motivation and ability What a familiar taste! Maybe XXXX XXXX cases mainly related to the fraud, not money laundering. But banks can have the same motivation and operating methods. When a suspicious transfer occurs, instead of spending time and money investigating and protecting innocent customers, the bank simply closes the account and abandons the customer. And because of the existence of that we have the right clause, customers can neither know the reason nor make further clarifications. This is indeed a profitable choice for banks without risk and responsibility. 

D. Not all the banks like BOA But not all banks abuse this we have the right clause in such a way and ignore the interests of customers. For instance, in my personal experience, two other banks in the US will call the customer to investigate the details of the transfer before the bank does any following actions. That is the reason I express intense anger at the BOAs malicious abuse of discretion and refusal to give any explanation. 

E. Harm more to minorities BOAs action perhaps systematic discrimination to Minorities. Especially foreign customers, international students, and new immigrating. First, these groups have more financial relationships with their own countries, which have more possibility to trigger BOAs account closure action. For the second, their poor English prevents them from fully understanding the contract terms drafted by professional lawyers that even most American clients can not understand. For the last, their lack of understanding of the US judicial system makes it difficult for them to protect their rights through legal means. 

Moreover, through the preliminary analysis of CFPB data, it has been possible to initially discover the relevance of some BOA complaint records with ethniXXXX minorities. 

F. Two departments of the BOA were suspected of malicious cooperation, which further strengthened the banks interests and increased the harm to customers The banks deceptive sales promotion and schizophrenia-like cross-departmental shirk responsibility. In my case, BOAs banker in the branch unusually proactively suggested I open a new account and more transfers, and then the BOAs fraud department closed my account in 3 days, and the bankers in the branch told me it was none of their business. They explain that the branch department can not get more information from their fraud department. But from the perspective of the bank, this is a low-risk and high-return cross-departmental cooperation, which is a " death trap '' for tens of thousands of innocent customers. For their own KPI,  for more customers and more deposits, the branch department actively encourages customers to open accounts and maintain a higher average balance, increasing the risk of customer accounts being closed. At the same time, the fraud department simply closed the account without investigating any real criminal activities. BOA has won as many customers and deposits as possible and kicked out any risks at a little cost. The mutual excuse of " the branch banker can not communicate directly with the fraud department '' perfectly resolves the last opportunity for customers to seek help through the bankers. What a perfect '' utilitarianism '' strategy. In fact, whether it is the branch bankers or the fraud department, they all part of the carefully designed architecture of BOA, and they all rely on their customers ' money to support them. 

G. Another Ford Pinto Case? Need to be in-deep investigated It is hard to imagine that BOA, a world-famous superbank, knows nothing about the above, lets so many customers suffer, and can not resolve the so-called internal problem that branch banker can not communicate with fraud department, etc.. A more reasonable explanation is that this is another " XXXX XXXX XXXX. '' It's very possible that BOA has already predicted and evaluated everything, such as how many customers can be attracted by BOAs misleading promotion? How many hidden risk cases are there? how much does it cost to investigate all the risk case? How about close the account directly? What percentage of customer complaints will there be? What percentage of customers will report to CFPB? What percentage of customers will go through legal channels? What is the probability that the bank will lose? How much does BOA need to pay? Comparing the cost of investigating all the risk cases, which one costs more? Basing BOAs risk-return analysis, BOA makes its final and won't be reconsidered business decision. 

IV. My Request and advice to CFPB Therefore, I submit the complaint against BOA and ask them to give me an explanation for closing my account. If they think their actions are reasonable, please show me their judgment rules and evidence. According to what Im learning in the university, I believe that BOAs systematic discrimination, which may be based on utilitarianism evaluation, will be a valuable class-action case for law school students. 

And I also strongly recommend CFPB implement an investigation to BOA for suspected malicious abuse of discretionary power and systemic discrimination by customers. Avoid their careful calculations based on utilitarianism and kick out more innocent customers onto the streets. Although recent policy changes weaken CFPBs authority, I believe only through more in-depth and more comprehensive investigations to huge banks such as BOA and better protection of minority consumers and consumers in XXXX  can we show the high value of CFPB, strengthen CFPBs authority, and protect more people living in the country under the rule of law.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation