Consumer complaint received 2015-08-10
Product: Money transfers — International money transfer
Issue: Wrong amount charged or received — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

I have an online account with Bank of America and am able to send wire transfers internationally and have done so many times, usually either dollar to dollar or dollar to XXXX transfers to myself or my husband. This is normal for me. I am a US citizen and XXXX and my work takes me to many locations abroad. This time, I sent a wire transfer on XXXX XXXX, 2015 in dollars to my dollar bank account in XXXX and the intermediary bank used by B or A converted the dollars to XXXX. I was contacted by phone by my XXXX banker and she informed me of the arrival of XXXX from an intermediary bank with instructions to deposit the transfer into my US dollar account. I was asked what I wanted to do because the arriving funds did not match the instructions. I accepted the transfer because the funds were required for a timely purchase. However, I was informed that this type of unauthorized currency conversion by an intermediary bank is illegal in XXXX. Apparently it is not in the USA. In essence, I was forced to accept the poor conversion rate. 

In XXXX I can request from my bank which intermediary bank was used to follow up with a problem, but not with B of A. I learned from B of A that the names of intermediary banks are private information that clients do not have access to. This lack of transparency is disconcerting considering that an unauthorized currency conversion can take place without consequence to any bank leaving the client to absorb any associated negative costs. In this case, I lost about {$620.00} in the conversion. 

I contacted B of A about this incident and filed a claim on XXXX XXXX, 2015. I was told that this was an anomaly and should not happen again. The Associate that I spoke with in the Claims Department 's Money Team filed a claim on my behalf to recuperate the lost funds from the intermediary bank and submitted a request for me to be placed on the " No conversion list '' with intermediary banks. I was told by the Associate to go ahead and NOT accept the wire transfer if this happened again because this kind of unauthorized currency conversion by an intermediary bank should not be happening. 

Confident that action was being taken and that this was a one-time occurrence, I went ahead with a planned XXXX transfer on XXXX XXXX 2015. Again, I received a call from my XXXX banker two days later who informed me that the same thing had taken place with XXXX arriving from the intermediary bank instead of dollars as instructed on the wire and I was asked what I wanted to do. I followed the advice of the B of A Associate and sent the wire back. After contacting B of A a second time to report that this was indeed NOT an anomaly, I was told that B of A had done everything it was supposed to on its end and therefore had no responsibility for what took place after the money left B of A and was transferred to the intermediary bank in dollars. I was unable to file a XXXX claim because I was told that there is no action that B of A can take since the wire transfer was not accepted and is being sent back. I do not accept this lack of action and lack of responsibility for what was done by an intermediary bank affiliated with B of A to make a profit. 

I would like for this to go on file and hopefully there are enough similar cases of problems with intermediary banks that might support a stronger government position on the transparency for clients related to banks and the intermediary banks they use for money transfers. Clients with international bank accounts are now asked by the government to disclose how much they have in their accounts. This transparency is acceptable. The US government should reciprocate this and support bank clients, and US citizens, by increasing the transparency for normal clients to know the routes through intermediary banks used to complete their money transfers.