Grim story.

Apparently banks can be tough to work with for obscure reasons.

Own little case:

While in NYS (US, New York State), did personal banking with, false name, XYZ Bank. Somehow I was assigned to a particular branch office of XYZ in NYS.

Moved to TN (Tennessee). Eventually ran out of paper checks, so ordered a new supply. The account was "joint" with my wife; thus, her name was also printed on the checks. Since my wife had been dead for 20+ years, I guessed (first mistake) that it would be more appropriate to have her name removed from the new batch of checks I was ordering.

Did get the new checks and used a few (mostly I don't pay with paper checks).

Then got some communications from "my" branch office of XYZ bank in NYS that I should come to the branch office and sign my name to show that I am the real owner or whatever of the account.

Apparently due to the new checks without my wife's name, someone at XYZ Bank was afraid that I was doing something nasty to my wife, to separate her from our joint money, etc.

Soooo, they wanted me to drive from TN to NYS for WHAT THE F????

So, I called and got sent to "my" XYZ Bank branch office in NYS.

On the phone to that office I explained:

"My wife died 20+ years ago. You are welcome to drive to Indiana, to the little town of Warsaw, take the main road south out of town, drive about 15 miles, turn left, east, to the little village of Claypool. There you will find a school and a church. The church has a graveyard. There you will find the tombstone of my wife ....

For my signature, you already have hundreds of copies of that. I will NOT drive to NYS. For more I will gladly talk to you. But I will not talk to lawyers. If you involve a lawyer, then I will immediately close out my account. If you want, I'll order a new batch of checks that again has my wife's name printed on the checks."

That worked. Otherwise I like XYZ Bank a lot. But, since XYZ Bank has no branch office near me in Tennessee, really I should get an account with a bank with an office where I live. Actually, while in NYS, I did open a "business" account at a branch of Chase. It was a small branch, small office, no Greek columns, just a few nice women, trying to be a local bank, for businesses, yes, but also for consumers. Likely gave them the form I'd just gotten from NYS "Doing business as". Checking, Chase does have a small branch where I live. And I have a small balance in that account.

Hmm. Sounds like anyone with a SMB (small, medium business) should have more bank accounts, not fewer!!! Sounds like, before my business starts getting revenue, I should get an account at a local bank where I can be known in person and use that as my main business bank.

Also lesson: Banks are legalistic, have too many rules, have low common sense, like lawyers too much, can be simplistic close to brain-dead, tend to be paranoid, and can generate expensive legal problems. Go slow on crypto, more than the necessary one LLC (limited liability company), etc.

Addendum:

For this discussion about banking,
we all should understand at least a little about financial institutions

SMB -- Small Medium Business

KYC -- Know Your Customer

SAR -- Suspicious Activity Reports

BSA -- Bank Secrecy Act