Consumer complaint received 2023-03-24
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
Hello I sold some stock from XXXX XXXX ( CS ) and requested a direct transfer of the proceedings to my Bank of America NA ( BOA ) account. It seems the proceedings around $ XXXX got transferred to an incorrect account as the the account number in XXXX was incorrect but the Name and the the routing number were correct. Here the details of my actions without any results. 

XX/XX/2022 - The transfer was made from XXXX XXXX to BOA. 

XXXXXXXX XXXX - Run around between help desks to find where the money went. No one would tell me where the funds were deposited. BOA told me depending on the type of transfer ACH or Wire it would have rejected and sent back to XXXX Bank ( XXXX XXXX  ) if the three things did not match - Account Number, Account Name and Routing number and it may take longer for sending bank to receive the funds back if it was a wire transfer. I finally asked for escalation in XXXX and they assigned a Cust Serv Analyst representative ( CSA rep. ) to work with me. 

XX/XX/2022 - to date I have been working with the XXXX CSA rep. with no luck. Here are the details of research. 

XXXX CSA rep. helped me get the details on the funds transfer XXXX File and also a letter with details on the funds transferred. 

It was an ACH transfer and the funds got deposited into someone else 's BOA account even though the Name on the account is different. 

I also went to the local BOA branch ( XXXX ) the Cust. Serv. Rep. said they could see where it got transferred to and they could not do anything but call the central support on the issue. They also mentioned that the account holder would not have realized it as it was some with lot of money and had a lot of heavy transactions. They could not do anything and XXXX XXXX  has to initiate the request. 

Now BOA wants a " Hold Harmless Agreement '' from XXXX XXXX  along with a request to return funds with details ( the letter provided should suffice ) to be faxed to ( XXXX ) XXXX - XXXX. Then BOA will send the funds back to XXXX XXXX. The Hold Harmless Agreement template should be available with XXXX XXXX  or on the Internet. 

XXXX CSA went to their CS legal who declined on giving anything from XXXX, so lastly the CSA was going to reach out to XXXX XXXX  and see ... and she has not responded to me over a month. I do not know the situation of my funds nor have any idea on the approach. Should I go to lawyer or someone in the press with this issue? 

This seems to be a systemic issue which needs to be addressed. Why would Bank of America deposit the funds without checking the name on the account even if the account number was incorrect? Why didn't XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ensure the account number was correct before sending the money? Usually they charge a {$1.00} to confirm if the transaction is ok. Why isn't anyone helping me with this issue? 

Due to these issues I am without any funds for last eight months and interest amount for trusting the process of Online Transfer. I have always used Paper check for disbursements before then. 

I would appreciate CFPB 's assistance with this issue. Please reach out to me. 

Thank you, have a good day.

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