Drawing money from bank account

etienneg

lyle1993 wrote: »

As bank staff myself, this attitude frustrates me. They aren't asking just to hinder your visit to the bank; they are asking for anti money laundering reasons, anti scam reasons, anti terrorist financing reasons. You do not know what people are up to nowadays. Imagine the comeback on the staff if that amount of cash was used for one of the above and they had facilitated it by not asking any questions? This is the world we live in now, respect those people duties to their job.

I have sympathy with those such as yourself who have to ask these questions because your employer says so. I also have sympathy with those who find it annoying that the bank (not you personally) think that asking these questions achieves anything, except maybe (just maybe) in the case of scams. If the OP was laundering the money or financing terrorism (or for that matter, drugs) with it, does anyone actually think he would tell the bank? Of course not - he would have a plausible reason ready and not draw attention to himself!

I read the other day of someone who inadvertently ticked the 'I am a terrorist' box when applying online for a US visa. It was something to do with the site crashing, and when she went back in the form was partially completed, so she carried on, and somehow this box had got ticked and she didn't notice. The trouble this has caused her since (and likely will continue to do so, perhaps for the rest of her life) is enormous. Yet who thinks any real terrorist would tick this box?!

Examples such as these just show that we (bank, US immigration) have taken the route of covering ourselves to avoid blame, when we all know that the methods are totally ineffective. It's an excuse for not doing the things that might bring results (but would likely cost money) - such as ensuring that fraudsters don't open bank accounts using stolen identities and developing systems that can easily track (and stop) suspicious transactions.

Terry_Towelling

Surely anyone intending to use a large amount of cash for nefarious purposes is going to have a handy reason lined up to give to bank staff anyway - e.g. 'I'm going to pay an unexpected bill for my girlfriend who's on holiday', or 'I'm going to buy a car with a £1K discount'.:)

I guess the only reason why there isn't a tick sheet to sign confirming that you are not intending to fund terrorism/buy drugs/fund organised crime is because that might prevent bank staff from using their discretion to refuse a customer request.