Consumer complaint received 2018-08-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MI
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
Summary : An international wire transfer I initiated has not made it to the recipient almost 2 months after sending, and Bank of America has not refunded the money either ( and closed the case without telling me when in the last follow-up call, they said they were still investigating. ) /////// Details : I initiated a foreign wire transfer with my bank ( Bank of America ) on XX/XX/XXXX , to send money to a foreign bank ( XXXX XXXX XXXX  ). BoA 's website said that the wire would take a few business days ( approximately 1-2 days ). 

I checked in with my colleague abroad 3-4 days later after I sent the wire and she said she never received it. I called to follow up and they said that the wire was still pending so I should check back in another day or two. I understand there are a few countries that are listed as " slow-to-pay '' countries, so I gave it a few more days. 

XX/XX/XXXX I called back again and the representative said they could see there is an intermediary bank that BoA has a relationship with ( called XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX ) and they are supposed to " relay '' the money and transfer it to the final recipient 's bank ( XXXX ). They said they couldn't see if XXXX had processed it yet but to call back the next day to see if they have any answers. 

I called on XX/XX/XXXX and they looked into it and said that they can place an investigation on the wire and " trace '' what happened to it. This was the day they formally gave me a case number. They said to give them 48 business hours to do the trace, so I called back again on XX/XX/XXXX. They encourage me to ask the recipient to talk to her bank and see if their bank could resolve. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, they told me they did the trace and could see that the money was debited from our account and it is ready for XXXX to take and relay the funds to XXXX but they have not picked it up yet. At this point they told me they had sent multiple requests to XXXX for a response ( through the XXXX   system ) but they haven't received anything back. They said they would send a few more requests and to follow up to see if they respond to those. 

The recipient, in the meantime, contacted her bank ( XXXX  ), and the bank told her that they have no working relationship with a bank called XXXX and they don't know why Bank of America is using them to relay the funds. I call BoA back on XX/XX/XXXX and I told them that we attempted to reach this intermediary bank but that the foreign bank has no working relationship with them. BoA said they still have not received a response from XXXX but they can see that they have not picked it up yet. 

I gave them a few more business days and I called back on XX/XX/XXXX and they said they could escalate this case to a " higher '' investigation team if I call back on XX/XX/XXXX ( They said they usually wait about 2 weeks from when the case is formally opened to escalate it higher. ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I call and they escalate to another investigation team. They told me to call back in a couple days to follow up on the case. 

I call back on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, with the same responses : that they have sent messages out to the intermediary bank but have not gotten a response yet. They encouraged me ( again ) to have my recipient try to resolve on her end, and I told them they she has tried. I have a recording of  the call on XX/XX/XXXX 

XX/XX/XXXX ( today ) I called to follow up and the representative told me that the case had been closed. I told him I was not aware of this. He has told me someone could reach out to me and so I provided him with my phone number. I am not hopeful that anyone will reach out to me or actually help me resolve this, so I have decided to submit a complaint against Bank of America.

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