Consumer complaint received 2024-04-18 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Opening an account — Unable to open an account
Company: EAST WEST BANK
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I was subjected to illegal discrimination and unauthorized facial recognition biometric data collection during my attempt to open an account with East West Bank. First, I traveled to the branch in XXXX in person, which was a long drive for me through busy traffic. I brought all necessary documents with me, unfortunately I forgot to remove my usual security freeze from the XXXX file and was told I can reapply immediately after I unfreeze the file, and do it online. I unfroze my XXXX file and waited a day before applying ( XXXX file unfreeze is instant ). I have no issues or recent inquiries on my XXXX file, I have excellent credit and all kinds of documents that are usually required to open a bank account, I do not have issues with my bank or credit accounts. I had no issues opening personal or business accounts XXXX XXXX. When I was filling out online application with East West bank, the website told me to take a selfie with my computer web camera and I did. After that I noticed that clearly facial recognition is being applied due to distortions my face was subjected to prolonged period of time on the scanned image that were indicative of automated facial geometry analysis. I never get consent to run biometrics on my face. I do not authorize East West bank to store, use or share my biometric data and never did. My application was denied clearly for discriminatory reason, based on my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I got a denial email that appeared to be AI-generated stating to call if I have any questions. When I called the provided number the representative was elusive and refused to give me a reason for denial. I insisted that I wanted to know the reason, because I have perfect credit, XXXX record, and no issues that'd warrant refusal to open me an account, other than my XXXX XXXX. After consulting with someone in the back office, the representative still refused to give me a reason for declining my application. They said the account was not opened because the bank does not want to and doesn't have to provide a reason. I noticed that all employees were of XXXX XXXX  and no other races were employed by this bank. Upon researching online I had realized that East West bank routinely engaged in closing or denying accounts for XXXX people in America, on top of firing XXXX employees ( there was a discrimination lawsuit recently ). There's no reason to deny me a checking account and no reason was provided despite my repeat requests. I even called the branch that I visited earlier and requested to speak to the manager to get the reason for denial : the manager said she'd call me back once she researches that, but she never did. They're shady and covering up illegal discrimination. They never responded to my email requests either. This bank clearly only wants to serve XXXX customers, this is illegal discrimination. 
PS : I did NOT provide CFPB with my actual phone number. I'm tired of privacy invasion, spammers and scammers trying to use phone, various entities selling our data, and I do not accept any calls neither I authorize usage of my phone number. I'm not tied to a phone number, I grew up without XXXX, I'm a human being : do you deny protection to citizens who do not own a phone? Is phone a requirement to get US government services? A DNA sample, facial recognition, what's next? That's why people are losing trust in US financial institutions, escalating spying, account freezing and discrimination. The bank was provided my phone number. They have all kinds of my data including facial scan and I believe they will sell or leak this data. Seems like their whole account opening is a scam to collect data. They can pull my record by application ID which is in XXXX of the attachments.

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