Consumer complaint received 2024-05-17
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (MA)

Dear Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I am writing to file a new complaint against Citibank regarding the {$29000.00} that I transferred to my XXXX  XXXX XXXX 's Citibank checking account in XX/XX/XXXX. Despite our efforts to resolve this issue directly with Citibank and through a previous complaint filed by my XXXXr ( Case # XXXX ), the matter remains unresolved. 

Summary of the Issue : In XX/XX/XXXX, I initiated XXXX transfers from my XXXX Savings account to my XXXX XXXX Citibank checking account : {$25000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, and {$4900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, totaling {$29000.00}. In XX/XX/XXXX, Citibank notified my XXXX that they would close her checking account within 60 days from XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, my XXXX contacted Citibank and was informed that all the funds ( {$36000.00} ) in her closed account were held by Citibank 's security department. 
My XXXX filed a complaint with the CFPB ( Case # XXXX ) and the XXXX ( XXXX # XXXX ). In response, Citibank issued a refund check of {$6100.00} to my XXXX  for the funds she had transferred from her own accounts, which she received on XX/XX/XXXX. However, Citibank declined to issue me a refund check for the {$29000.00} I had transferred, despite the evidence provided in the filed cases. Citibank stated that I would need to contact my bank ( XXXX ) and have them send a Hold Harmless to Citibank for them to review if the funds can be released back to me. 

Efforts to Resolve the Issue : As per Citibank 's suggestion, I visited a local XXXX Bank branch ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXX XXXX  XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX. The bank XXXX, XXXX XXXX, assisted me in contacting XXXX 's XXXX XXXX Department ( XXXX ). However, XXXX later confirmed that their bank is unable to provide a Hold Harmless in this situation. XXXX explained that a Hold Harmless typically only applies to wire transfers that involved fraud per the agreements between banks. The XXXX representative stated that since I confirmed the transfers were made by me to my XXXX, they were not fraud and therefore XXXX could not provide a Hold Harmless. 
I wrote to Citibank on XX/XX/XXXX reporting that XXXX could not provide a Hold Harmless. I requested Citibank to provide alternative approaches to return the funds to me. However, they didnt respond to my request at all. Instead, they sent a response to my XXXX  XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. In their response, Citibank insisted that the third-party ( me in this case ) will need to work directly with their financial institution to request the funds be returned. While I respect Citibanks procedures of handling interinstitutional channels of communication, I found their failure to get back to me directly problematic. They acknowledged that they have received my communication, thus they should be aware their proposed solution ( getting a Hold Harmless from XXXX ) was not practical given XXXX policy. They should come up with alternative ways to return the funds to me instead of writing to my XXXXr concluding with this final letter, we consider the issue resolved. We will no longer respond to inquiries regarding this matter.