Intrusive Questions, If Not Answered Account Closed, from Chase Bank?

Black_Rhino

I’ve been with Chase for two years…….BUT….Chase are asking me very intrusive questions. Obviously my name, citizenship, income, home address and residential status. I’m perfectly happy to provide again.

However, they’re asking me if I’m employed, self-employed or a business owner and when I choose one of these options they ask who my employer is?
Or what is my business called? 

They want the year I started with them?
Or the date I started my company and what industry I’m in??
Is that my only source of income?

(How is that question needed? If I rent out another property, they need to know??)

Then they asked me what my annual income is… (Happy to provide this but are the other questions relevant to having a Chase Account?)

After getting this far through they then ask these questions...

What's my expected monthly account usage money in money out?? They want accurate figures.

Then they go on to ask me what the purpose of my account is for!
 Options being:

• Every day spending?

• Paying bills?

• Saving money?

• Receiving income?

• For holidays and travelling?

• Donating to charity?

They have a "Why are we asking this?".  Surprise surprise the link is broken. 

If these questions are not answered before the 16th of October 2024, my account shall be closed.

I'm having to bank with constant 'pop up's reminding me of the days I have left'. 

I’ve had this bank account for around two years and never been asked these kinds of intrusive questions from other banks before? 

Can anyone help, or give me some advice?

wmb194

Black_Rhino said:

I’ve been with Chase for two years…….BUT….Chase are asking me very intrusive questions. Obviously my name, citizenship, income, home address and residential status. I’m perfectly happy to provide again.

However, they’re asking me if I’m employed, self-employed or a business owner and when I choose one of these options they ask who my employer is?
Or what is my business called? 

They want the year I started with them?
Or the date I started my company and what industry I’m in??
Is that my only source of income?

(How is that question needed? If I rent out another property, they need to know??)

Then they asked me what my annual income is… (Happy to provide this but are the other questions relevant to having a Chase Account?)

After getting this far through they then ask these questions...

What's my expected monthly account usage money in money out?? They want accurate figures.

Then they go on to ask me what the purpose of my account is for!
 Options being:

• Every day spending?

• Paying bills?

• Saving money?

• Receiving income?

• For holidays and travelling?

• Donating to charity?

They have a "Why are we asking this?".  Surprise surprise the link is broken. 

If these questions are not answered before the 16th of October 2024, my account shall be closed.

I'm having to bank with constant 'pop up's reminding me of the days I have left'. 

I’ve had this bank account for around two years and never been asked these kinds of intrusive questions from other banks before? 

Can anyone help, or give me some advice?

It's to do with KYC requirements and all institutions do them to one extent or another. If you want to keep the account I'd answer them honestly.

There have been other threads on this with Chase:

September 2024 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6555261/chase-request-for-information/p1

February 2024 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6506187/chase-asking-questions-anyone-else/p1

Catplan

It’s KYC and to cover themselves so they know the source of funds it legitimate.

you either answer the questions or find another bank. I filled it in and just gave estimates on figures, roughly what I think I’ll spend.

LHW99

 Options being:

• Every day spending?

• Paying bills?

• Saving money?

• Receiving income?

• For holidays and travelling?

• Donating to charity?

Surely they need something like "all of the above"?

teaselMay

What's KYC please?

mebu60

teaselMay said:

What's KYC please?

KYC = Know Your Customer
AML = Anti-Money Laundering

dunstonh

I’ve had this bank account for around two years and never been asked these kinds of intrusive questions from other banks before? 

The newer retail banks are having to go out of their way more to cover AML requirements.   And typically, if they find something that makes it higher risk, they tend to go to town a bit more on the questions.     They haven't the experience, track record or resources yet to match the long established players.   It tends to be more black and white in how they do it.  i..e standard check and enhanced check with nothing in between.

Also, the FCA tends to adjust its requirements for individual firms based on their track record.   Those found not to be up to standard have to go above and beyond what may be typical.

You appear to have been classified as high risk and have triggered enhanced checks.   This may be down to transactions (to and/or from overseas, a lot of money shifting between accounts), or information flagged up on electronic checks.     You may be unlucky and have a name that is fairly common and shows many Sanctions/PEPs/Adverse potential matches.   Whatever it is, your data has flagged you as a high risk and triggered an enhanced check.

Starling got fined £29m recently for AML failures with 54,000 accounts opened for 49,000 high risk customers over 2 years.  So, it has to be taken seriously otherwise this is the sort of fine they would be looking at.

refluxer

Black_Rhino said:

What's my expected monthly account usage money in money out?? They want accurate figures.

It's not critical to give them super-accurate figures. The amount I have coming and going from my Chase account varies considerably from month to month, so I just gave them a rough, ball-park average.

Questions like these are getting more and more common, for the reasons mentioned above. Some even ask for this kind of information when you open an account as an existing customer ! It's probably only a matter of time before the banks and building societies who don't currently ask start to play catch-up.

While data protection and privacy is an important issue in general, I don't personally have an issue providing banks with this type of information because, if you think about it, they could get a lot of the information they need from a quick look at a few of your statements or a list of transactions anyway.

boingy

They are entitled to ask but I don't believe that this sort of stuff will have any significant effect on reducing money laundering. They can't or won't check most of the answers so the bad guys will just make up the answers and if they get pinged they'll just open a new account somewhere else. 

So answer their questions then forget about it. Just estimate the numbers. No-one spends exactly the same each month anyway.

BTW, unless it was a typo then your deadline for doing this is TODAY!

Black_Rhino

Thank you all so much for your answers. I suppose I was more concerned that it wasn’t the “norm”,  as I’ve never had it before with any bank. 

I think I do like most, only pay spending money into my chase, from my main Santander account for the cash back rewards. I don't get my wage into it. I think that's maybe what's they're stamping down on? 

I’m certainly not up to no good! I wish I had large amounts going to and out. Nothing from overseas either. Just unlucky I suppose, I’ll have to answer them then. @boingy yes it was a typo sorry, it says 16 days left. whoops  

Thanks

DullGreyGuy

Black_Rhino said:

Thank you all so much for your answers. I suppose I was more concerned that it wasn’t the “norm”,  as I’ve never had it before with any bank. 

I think I do like most, only pay spending money into my chase, from my main Santander account for the cash back rewards. I don't get my wage into it. I think that's maybe what's they're stamping down on? 

I’m certainly not up to no good! I wish I had large amounts going to and out. Nothing from overseas either. Just unlucky I suppose, I’ll have to answer them then. boingy yes it was a typo sorry, it says 16 days left. whoops  

Thanks

They are increasingly the norm... Santander was find £107m for their failures a couple of years ago, Starling have recently been fined £29m for their failings in related spaces. Chase itself was fined $350m this year for inadequate monitoring of customer activities in its trading division. 

Big fines from regulators tend to stir others into action to avoid their own fine coming along the line. They all come under the header of Financial Crime and you simply cannot claim to have good control of it if you dont have decent KYC checks otherwise things like AML, Sanctions etc are all pointless if you aren't even 100% sure who your customer is. 

HSBC had a big push 2 years ago, others will do similar over time.