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Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

hey.paris

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Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#51

Post by csomar »

jjani wrote: post #12

Don't worry too much, luckily you've reached #1 on HN so they'll fix it for you within a day.

That was a thing 3-4 years ago. Now we have evolved and there is a very good chance that OP issue won't be solved because even the CEO doesn't have the kind of necessary access to move this through.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#52

Post by mppm »

Unfortunately, this is the reality of modern business banking, and Wise is not unique in this. You can find similar reports about most major EMIs and a fair number of banks. Banks have basically become an inefficient and unfair branch of law enforcement, without presumption of innocence and without due process. Every imaginable abuse is justifiable by Compliance nowadays.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#53

Post by alterom »

pbmonster wrote: post #27

Are those fintech companies under any financial regulatory authority? If my bank pulls any kind of stuff like that, dropping the magic "I will have to report this to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority" gets any and all gears unstuck right quick. Because this is absolutely unacceptable, and my local financial regulator agrees (and levies substantial fines accordingly). Might be an EU thing, though.

>Are those fintech companies under any financial regulatory authority?

In the US, they need to be licensed on a state level.

E.g.: they'd need to have an MTL (Money Transmittance License) in California, regulated by DFPI:

https://dfpi.ca.gov/regulated-industries/money-transmitters/

So, yes, they are.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#57

Post by csomar »

pbmonster wrote: post #27

Are those fintech companies under any financial regulatory authority? If my bank pulls any kind of stuff like that, dropping the magic "I will have to report this to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority" gets any and all gears unstuck right quick. Because this is absolutely unacceptable, and my local financial regulator agrees (and levies substantial fines accordingly). Might be an EU thing, though.

They are and Wise certainly is given how big and integrated they are. The problem is that most of the time they are blocking your account because of regulation, so they have checked that box and covered their a*s.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#58

Post by reconnecting »

boomskats wrote: post #30

Ahh, I have fond memories of this. Their random KYC 're-verification' process (the lack of humans/computer says no) was _dystopian_ levels of frustrating. In the end I made a gif[0] and called them out publicly in the hope that they'd do something about it. The service they offer is amazing when it works, but it'll be a long time before I use them for anything my business depends on. [0]: https://x.com/boomskats/stat…

It's not random KYC. Most likely, this is a fraud prevention system that spotted your account as suspicious.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#60

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

m101 wrote: post #13

This is also a common experience in retail banking (not only wise) in the UK. I put the blame on excessive regulation. Businesses are scared of crossing the regulator for fear of revocation of licence or high fines. Also the regulations themselves impose lengthy delay requirements on doing business. What I've also found is the large incumbents largely skirt the regulations (HSBC for instance let's payments through wh…

Asking for KYC is normal. Here, OP is reporting that they're being alternatingly told that:

- they need to provide KYC documents, except the documents they're being asked for are the same they already provided

- everything is fine and no documents are required

That's not "excessive regulation", that's incompetence and insufficient regulation.

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