Consumer complaint received 2019-07-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
Bank of America froze the funds in my account until the co-owner on my account called them to answer citizenship related questions ( over and over ).

We have had this account for 20 years. I realized the funds were frozen when I was on vacation and attempted to make a transfer to a child who was out of town, needed money, and it wouldn't go through.

After multiple frustrating attempts to understand what was going on and over an hour and 15 minutes on the phone, and after I was hung up on and lied to ( this information is required by federal
regulation- again weve had this account for 20 years so was not CIP related ). My husband had to call them back from a conference and answer 4 or 5 different citizenship questions before they would  allow access to our funds. 

This is discrimination at its best. They said they needed the information to establish a profile for monitoring. The only questions he was asked was name, address, source of income and 4 or 5 are you a us citizen are you a us resident do you reside in the  usquestions. They froze our funds for this! 

The best part was, after I had received NO notice of my account being restricted ( they said they mailed a letter to me but we definitely did not receive it- I did receive a strange email a week ago about transfer ability being removed and I called customer service spent a half hour on hold to be told by Bof A that they had no idea what it meant ), I asked about the checks I had written that probably bounced or achs that were blocked while my account was restricted ( without my knowledge ) and they said that wasn't their problem. 

I want to know what federal regulation requires us to answer citizenship questions and why a bank would block access to my funds without notifying me, again definitely not BSA or CIP related as weve been customers for 20 years and nothing has changed on our a count relationship. I dont use cash and we dont have a lot running through this account so not AML related in any way either. I want to know why it isn't a violation of federal regulation to block access to my funds for no reason, causing bounced checks and issues with my utility bills. And then forcing me to call and spend hours on hold to find out the issue was that they needed to know my husbands citizenship status and what country he was from. We have not ever been outside the US and I find this VERY offensive. I want reimbursement for my bounced checks and an apology for the embarrassment its caused me. 

Weve had this account for 20 years, never a single bounced check or any other issue on my part. I take my financial responsibilities very seriously, impeccable credit, impeccable deposit handling history and how we were treated was just plain wrong. Your compliance department needs some training. 

I wonder, if I had kept a higher balance in my account would I have been treated the same, subject to the same rudeness and citizenship questions?

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