Consumer complaint received 2021-04-25
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX New York State Department of Financial Services XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX, NY XXXX XXXX : CFPB Complaint ID # XXXX & XXXX Dear CFPB, Thank you for hearing my concern. I write regarding my prior cases, which are related, and to flag a new issue, which is that the explanation that M & T provided you is not factually correct, and I have the documentation to prove it. In short, the explanation that they provided to you is wrong - either intentionally so ( which would be VERY problematic ) or negligently so ( which means that M & T 's outdated customer systems are not communicating with each other resulting in incorrect information being utilized by the bank and given to regulators. 

Since I have logged my complain with your institutions, I have received a letter from M & T bank with an explanation of what happened. The letter sent from M & T had noted that copies were sent to your respective office ( as well as the NY Department of Financial Services ) in the salutation. After reading their explanation for why my safe deposit box was opened and my items removed during my rental period with no explanation, I was even more concerned as what they had told me. What I have on record does not agree with what they had stated in their letter of explanation to me, and more troublingly, to you, as one of the regulators. 

My understanding from M & T employees at the XXXX branch where the safety deposit box was held, is that there was an incongruity with bank systems. Specifically, their legacy computer system XXXX was not communicating properly with their subsystem which manages safe deposit box rentals. In essence, the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. I have still a copy of the rental agreement for that time period with the correct address and still my box was drilled and closed on XX/XX/XXXX. I have a copy of the safe deposit box rental invoice reflecting the current address and rental period XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX for confirmation. It reflects the XXXX XXXX address, not the XXXX XXXX address, which was their purported excuse to me and to you. 

In sum, M & T drilled my safety deposit box during my rental period. The rental agreement reflects the current XXXX XXXX XXXX -- not the XXXX XXXX address. M & T faulted me for not updating my address, which was not true and also inconsistent with their own documents. M & T also faulted me to excuse its failure to contact me at the XXXX address. From bank personnel, I've learned that the bank 's outdate XXXX computer system is not updating addresses across all customer accounts or all bank operations. This leads to mistakes, such as their drilling my safe deposit box during my rental period when they had my current address. M & T then failed to bring the database communications issue to the CFPB/OCC/DFS during the inquiry. 

Im hoping this complaint will address the obvious control gap in their process/systems so this will not happen to anyone in the future. My new concern is their disregard of any wrongdoing and their incorrect explanation offered to the regulating bodies, both in the initial letter they asked me to sign discharging them of any liability and the letter they sent detailing their excuse. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX

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