They're actually required by law to ask under the Know Your Customer regulations. If you're a used car dealer who regularly buys and sells cars for cash, they wouldn't bother asking after a week or so of you opening the account because depositing and withdrawing $5k, $10k, $15k is normal behavior for you, but if you just walk in one day and ask to clean out your savings account, yeah, they'll probably ask why. Whether or not they refuse to give you the full amount you ask for comes down to how much physical cash they actually have in the branch. If you really don't want to tell them anything, just say you're opening an account with another bank because you don't want to be left in the lurch if their IT system craps itself.
Check out the new Rolling Stone Matt Taibbi column on BOA and the US banking system. It could be worth your while extracting all except living expenses until it's safe to go inside again.
This is untrue. KYC obligations are about knowing customer identity before they conduct transactions, not about knowing what the funds are being used for. Typically this identity check will occur when you open an account at the bank . Banks are also obliged to report on suspicious matters but they have no proactive obligation to make enquiries to confirm there aren't suspicious matters occuring when transactions take place. They also have to report transactions over $10k and foreign transfers. Assuming they have already confirmed your identity, a single transaction for $8k is not at all suspicious and so they won't refuse to give you the money, even if you tell them to buzz off and mind their own businesss. Funnily enough, even if they do believe a transaction is suspicious, they will still likely give you your money (particularly such a relatively small amount) because entities that have to complete suspicious matters reporting are not allowed to tip off the person conducting the suspicious transaction, which refusing the withdrawal would obviously do. All info from austrac.gov.au for those interested.
They're obliged to give you your money. It's still yours. Not the bank's call on whether or not you get access to your funds if they decide they need to report a suspicious matter. There's a few people participating in this thread who work at AUSTRAC designated service providers, and are not just pulling information off a website.
In practice, this will depend on the size of the transaction. ...including myself. But that is not really relevant given the info is public on the Austrac website. Not sure why you are having a dig. Have I said anything incorrect?
KYC info is info about the customer's identity, right? Is that the point you are disagreeing with? So, suspicious transactions might result in you collecting additional identification information, but asking what funds are being used for is not identification information and is not required to be collected. There is no obligation to ask for that. If you are asking you clients for that, you are going further than the government intended/requires. But, if your customers will put up with it, then good luck to you... EDIT: Typos
Well, it is the banks' customers that are putting up with it, but the law that AUSTRAC oversees (pretty sensibly) says that businesses like banks are in the best position to figure out how to identify dodgy people by their patterns of behavior. How the banks and other reporting entities do this is largely up to them, but generally it's just pretty common sense stuff. If a customer walks into a bank and asks for a large sum of cash - way more than their usual transactions are worth - don't you think it would be common sense for the teller to ask about it? Maybe they're just buying a car, maybe they're setting up a new business running a market stall, maybe they're about to buy a kilo of methamphetamine. Maybe the customer appears to be under the influence of methamphetamine while they're standing at the counter saying they need the cash now man! If the teller doesn't ask, they don't have much other information to figure out if the transaction is suspicious or not. Know Your Customer and Ongoing Customer Due Diligence overlap in lots of areas. Simply being able to identify the customer is all well and good, but if you don't know anything else about them, you're not in a position to say whether their transactions are suspicious. If identifying customers was all that mattered, it would be called Identify Your Customer but they use the word "know" for a reason.
My local ANZ branch only has $3k on hand per day + 1k from the cashpoint machine. I am more than welcome to visit a couple of branches which is what I did when I went to buy my car. We did get into a conversation as to why I needed the money but it seemed more about them wanting to know if I was going to need anymore and whether I wanted to order some in. A combination of online transfers, ATM withdrawals and visiting different banks over a couple of days did the trick and I managed to withdraw around $40k with norestrictions other than what the bank had to hand. Not sure what would have happenned if another customer had come in wanting to make a similar withdrawal, maybe it is $3k max per customer and they have enough to service a couple of people. Maybe I hoovered up the whole lot (I did get a nice consecutive run of 25 last prefix '08 $100 bills in crisp uncirculated condition, catalogue value = $4375, actual value = $2500)
We disagree on the interpretation of the law. As do you and at least three major financial services organisations, including one Big 4 bank that I am familiar with. Nevertheless, I have spent far too much time on this argument today and I don't plan on continuing - if you want to overreach your requirements then this is up to you.
I wonder what will happen when I eventually walk into a Big 4 bank State Office, and ask for $45,000 (at call savings account) in one go? OC
its not a big deal if you just call the branch the day before and they will have it ready for you the next day
It isn't the interpretation of the law, it's just the differences in implementation at a business level. The big banks have different risk profiles for money laundering and terrorist financing than the businesses I've worked in. Their procedures will therefore be different to the ones I've had to follow.
They will look a bit surprised talk between themselves and then get the cash for you if they have that much available, you sign for it and leave. Better to ring and ask them to get $100 bills in as $50 bills are bulky in my opinion. If you want say $100,000.00 you have to give 5 days notice and arrange a time to pickup. The armed security walk in to the bank, the girls sign for it and hand you the sealed bag and you sign for it. They do not count it for you as it has come from the people who deliver it. They also suggest that you have a escort but it is your decision. If you want you can put it in a bag and walk out of the branch your call.
