Foreign currency transfer gone wrong

EntryLevel

My Mum has just got herself in a pickle. She was residing in France until recently when her husband died a year ago. She moved back to England. In France she had a joint account with her deceased husband where most of her savings has ended up.

She just tried to transfer a large amount of money from her French EUR account to her English bank account using TorFX. The French bank would not release the funds because they claim to require authorisation from a French notaire. According to my Mum, a notaire has already dealt with the estate and succession business and the bank had already said they would sort out the status of the account back in May. The amount my Mum is trying to transfer was put into the joint bank account in her name since her husband's death.

Unfortunately, it would appear my Mum agreed to some kind of action on the phone with TorFX such that they proceeded to buy the currency, without her first checking with the bank if there might be any problem making a large withdrawal. The French bank did let her make the withdrawal (and still have not) and TorFX proceeded then to sell back the currency and cancel the contract. They are now saying there is a significant loss to pay to cover their costs (though the exchange rate has moved very little between the times they claim to have bought and sold the currency, they say the loss is about 7% which amounts to a few thousand pounds).

Any advice?

xylophone

According to my Mum, a notaire has already dealt with the estate and succession business and the bank had already said they would sort out the status of the account back in May. The amount my Mum is trying to transfer was put into the joint bank account in her name since her husband's death.

All the necessary formalities were completed by May but the account remained in joint names even though the bank had been advised of your father's death?

The French bank did let her make the withdrawal (and still have not)

The bank didn't and still maintains that the necessary conditions etc have not been met?

What penalty provisions were there in the TorFX contract if the transfer failed?

EntryLevel

Thank you. Yes, the bank did not release the funds, sorry. Yes, the account remained in joint names despite the bank, in May, claiming that they would sort out all the account formalities as promptly as possible (they specifically listed renaming of accounts as one of the items to do). Correct, the bank is still claiming that they need permission from the notaire, despite sufficient funds arriving in the account in my Mum's name after the death.



Re penalty provisions. Well, this is the thing. There was no written penalty provisions in any contract written down because it was all done over the phone as I understand it. A quote was given by email, I believe. No doubt TorFX have terms and conditions.

MarkCarnage

They do

Not difficult to find.

https://www.torfx.com/content/terms.php

Difficult to see how movement in the rate would incur a loss of 7% or several thousand. Nor would interest costs at 3 over base make any real impact provided they closed it out quite quickly.

That leaves their 'costs'. Difficult to see how they could justify several £k as 'reasonable'. They don't have your Mother's money, so are they going to waste a lot of time and money trying to pursue her for it?

I would be inclined to ask them for a detailed breakdown of this amount. The spread will, or should be quite minimal, and interest costs should be too. Offer them £100 for their 'costs'. If the spread quoted is ridiculous, call them out on that. They are UK based and FCA regulated.

All of this presupposes that the details you give are even approximately correct. I'm surprised they agreed to deal with a retail customer for this size without confirmation of, or indeed receipt of funds into a client account.

Brian65

Why would TorFX change the money before they have received it?

MarkCarnage

Brian65 wrote: »

Why would TorFX change the money before they have received it?

Precisely....which makes me wonder quite a bit too.....

EntryLevel

I will pass on your suggestion of requesting a detailed breakdown, thank you.