Consumer complaint received 2026-05-24 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: BMO BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IA

Complaint narrative:
On Friday morning, XX/XX/year>, I deposited a standard, machine-printed corporate payroll check from my employer, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , for the amount of {$1000.00} via the BMO mobile application. The application 's deposit history officially marked the item status as " Approved '' under unique Confirmation Number XXXX, immediately updating my Current Balance to reflect the funds. Immediately following the deposit on Friday, XX/XX/year>, BMO issued an automated Deposit Hold Notification email confirming they were withholding 100 % of the check value, stripping my Available Balance to exactly {$0.00}, and scheduling the full funds release for XX/XX/year> ( a 7-business-day delay compounded by the XXXX XXXX holiday weekend ). This immediate restriction constitutes a direct violation of Regulation CC ( 12 CFR 229.10 ( c ) ), which mandates next-business-day statutory funds availability for the first {$220.00} of a standard check deposit. By making {$0.00} available from day one, BMO failed to grant the minimum statutory requirements. Furthermore, on Saturday, XX/XX/year>, I initiated a formal inquiry via BMO 's authenticated customer support chat to identify the legal basis for this hold. Regulatory Non-Compliance & Misrepresentation : A representative explicitly invoked the high-level Regulation CC exception of " reasonable cause to doubt collectability. '' However, when I formally requested the required fact-based details or specific information received from the paying institution under 12 CFR 229.13 ( e ), the representative refused to provide the factual basis, refused to provide an employee ID, and refused my multiple requests to escalate the chat to a supervisor. Direct Evidence of Pretext : The official BMO Hold Notification email sent to me on Friday completely exposes the representative 's claim as an arbitrary fabrication. The automated notice states the hold was placed purely as a generic mechanism to " ensure that the bank account on which the check is drawn from has enough money. '' BMO had no specific " reasonable cause '' from the paying bank ; they retroactively claimed a strict regulatory fraud exception to avoid addressing a standard payroll hold. Failure to Resolve : When I initiated a second escalation chat on Saturday to address these compounding violations, a second representative acknowledged the severity of the issue but stated she lacked the system permissions to perform an override. She directed me to a specialized supervisor resolution line ( XXXX ) and scheduled an official supervisor callback for Sunday morning, XX/XX/year>. BMO Bank completely failed to fulfill this commitment and never called back, entirely abandoning consumer resolution efforts while keeping 100 % of my household payroll funds restricted over a long holiday weekend. Desired Resolution : Because this is a verified, recurring corporate payroll check well under the {$5500.00} threshold, and because BMO has failed to provide a valid, fact-based statutory notice for an exception hold while ignoring repeated customer escalation paths and breaking callback agreements, I am seeking an immediate manual administrative override and release of the full {$1000.00} balance.

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 non-monetary relief