Bank transfer through reference bank "on hold" since 2 weeks - any experiences?

[misterta]

Hello,
I have a question and hope anyone can say something to this problem.

I get a bank transfer from turkish customer to my dubai company bank account.
2 days after customer transfered the money he get a call from bank that reference bank ask for what this transfer is...
He gave them invoice...and turkish sending bank was satisfied.

Then 1 day later I get an email from my dubai bank that the bank transfer is "on hold" from reference bank (crazy thing is, reference bank is from belgium for a transfer from turkey to dubai!!!)
and that they want more information for this transfer. So I send them everything what they need (invoice, customer details...) and dubai bank forwarded it to the belgium reference bank.

It's been 2 weeks since that and I haven't received a reply and the money hasn't been credited either.

I've never experienced anything like this and I don't know what to do about it. The customer writes to me every day what's going on and when I'll start with his project. However, I cannot start before the money has been credited to my account.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did it turn out?

 

[Martin Everson]

UAE is a FATF grey list country what you expect?

Did he send also in (high risk) USD currency and how much was it for roughly?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Hello,
I have a question and hope anyone can say something to this problem.

I get a bank transfer from turkish customer to my dubai company bank account.
2 days after customer transfered the money he get a call from bank that reference bank ask for what this transfer is...
He gave them invoice...and turkish sending bank was satisfied.

Then 1 day later I get an email from my dubai bank that the bank transfer is "on hold" from reference bank (crazy thing is, reference bank is from belgium for a transfer from turkey to dubai!!!)
and that they want more information for this transfer. So I send them everything what they need (invoice, customer details...) and dubai bank forwarded it to the belgium reference bank.

It's been 2 weeks since that and I haven't received a reply and the money hasn't been credited either.

I've never experienced anything like this and I don't know what to do about it. The customer writes to me every day what's going on and when I'll start with his project. However, I cannot start before the money has been credited to my account.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did it turn out?

It happens every day, and it will happen more and more often. That’s why everyone should switch to crypto.

 

[JackAlabama]

Hello,
I have a question and hope anyone can say something to this problem.

I get a bank transfer from turkish customer to my dubai company bank account.
2 days after customer transfered the money he get a call from bank that reference bank ask for what this transfer is...
He gave them invoice...and turkish sending bank was satisfied.

Then 1 day later I get an email from my dubai bank that the bank transfer is "on hold" from reference bank (crazy thing is, reference bank is from belgium for a transfer from turkey to dubai!!!)
and that they want more information for this transfer. So I send them everything what they need (invoice, customer details...) and dubai bank forwarded it to the belgium reference bank.

It's been 2 weeks since that and I haven't received a reply and the money hasn't been credited either.

I've never experienced anything like this and I don't know what to do about it. The customer writes to me every day what's going on and when I'll start with his project. However, I cannot start before the money has been credited to my account.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did it turn out?

That is not so crazy for the correspondence bank to be in Belgium if your customer sent you Euro. In fact it is how this works. There is no actual money being sent around and there are no "flying cash envelopes". It is just a credit / debit entry in several databases by licensed banks of the currency in question.
So for Euro in EU, for gbp in UK and for USD in new york. Even if you send US$ from Indonesia to Philippines, it clears thru NY.

What currency did he use? My bet would be euro (the eu should be happy however someone uses that garbauge voluntarily).

Next time use Bitcoin.

 

[misterta]

That is not so crazy for the correspondence bank to be in Belgium if your customer sent you Euro. In fact it is how this works. There is no actual money being sent around and there are no "flying cash envelopes". It is just a credit / debit entry in several databases by licensed banks of the currency in question.
So for Euro in EU, for gbp in UK and for USD in new york. Even if you send US$ from Indonesia to Philippines, it clears thru NY.

What currency did he use? My bet would be euro (the eu should be happy however someone uses that garbauge voluntarily).

Yes customer send me euro because from turkey to dubai its difficult to send AED.
Its was a 100% legal business with invoices and everything else.

What currency did he use? My bet would be euro (the eu should be happy however someone uses that garbauge voluntarily).

Next time use Bitcoin

Problem is I can not send customers invoice in BTC. Most of my customers are from turkey and germany. They all want to pay by bank transfer.

 

[misterta]

UAE is a FATF grey list country what you expect?

Did he send also in (high risk) USD currency and how much was it for roughly?

O s**t I read it. Crazy s**t

No it was send in EUR not in USD. 5K.

 

[Forester]

With EUR transfer, a corresponding bank in Belgium makes perfect sense; it's normal. But 5k is really not so much. What is your business, and the business of your partner? Could you share the bank names? Is this the first transfer that you done with this company? Is this your long-time partner or a new customer? (Do you have some clue about his reputation?) Etc.
Just generally, 2 weeks for a compliance are not so much, nowadays.

 

[misterta]

Customer is 100% clean. Has in turkey company for car rental.
No it is the 5th transfer to this company (new company, have this since 2 month). The first 4 was without any problems and with higher amounts.
Job was creation of a website + individual design including connection to various portals. Creation of individual offline and online advertisement...

Customer bought this over my website. I have send the bank all details about this transfer (old emails between me and customer, invoice...) but since 2 weeks there comes nothing
What the bank do sucks so much. "On hold" without any reason is crazy. The next really bad experience with a bank that I made.
Customer writes me every day and call me and ask when I will start with his project.

 

[Forester]

Customer is 100% clean. Has in turkey company for car rental.
No it is the 5th transfer to this company (new company, have this since 2 month). The first 4 was without any problems and with higher amounts.

Strange. The first transfers were also EUR from Turkey to UAE?

Job was creation of a website + individual design including connection to various portals. Creation of individual offline and online advertisement...

Customer bought this over my website.

Looks really innocent.

What the bank do sucks so much. "On hold" without any reason is crazy. The next really bad experience with a bank that I made.
Customer writes me every day and call me and ask when I will start with his project.

As it seems to be “customer related”, or maybe “customer's bank related”, the only idea that I have is to direct customer to press at his bank (definitely, not at you ). The true is that as it seems to be an initiative of a correspondent bank, the effect is definitely not guaranteed, but anyway...

 

[misterta]

No is the 5th transfer Foren Turkey to Dubai. First 4 was higher amounts and without any Problems.

 

[Forester]

First 4 was higher amounts

Also in EUR?

 

[JackAlabama]

No is the 5th transfer Foren Turkey to Dubai. First 4 was higher amounts and without any Problems.

Did they take place before march?

In march this year, UAE got listed by Fatf and the eu has never been a fan of it. So maybe that is the reason why now.
Just guessing here.

 

[misterta]

Yes the first 4 transfers was also in Euro and also from turkey to dubai.

No they was in april any may.

 

[NicolasMaduro]

Yes the first 4 transfers was also in Euro and also from turkey to dubai.

No they was in april any may.

From same Company or different?

 

[Forester]

Yes the first 4 transfers was also in Euro and also from turkey to dubai.

No they was in april any may.

From same Company or different?

As I understand from what @misterta says above, it was from a different company/ies, this car rental is a new customer.
So from all the above I conclude, that it is almost surely related to a customer or to a customer's bank. The correspondence bank suspects the former or the latter of something, performs an enhanced due diligence or WTH (or someone there is just lazy and/or overloaded). In such a case IMO @misterta can do almost nothing, just to inform the customer and to advise him to develop some press at his bank... it might help and it need not help, depending on the relationships between the customer's bank and the correspondence bank; and be patient.

 

[bisk]

Which UAE bank?

 

[csp dubai]

forget dubai ison grey list and soon on black one, use crito

 

[misterta]

So since I submitting first time the necessary documents are now 28 days over and the comes nothing from the reference bank.

My customer was now at his Bank to get back the money and fill out a formular there. This was on monday. But he didn‘t get back the money yet.

This is a fucking crazy situation. Who gives the referencebank the right to froze this money without any reason. I dont understand this!

Has anyone here experienced the same thing?

 

[Martin Everson]

This is a fucking crazy situation. Who gives the referencebank the right to froze this money without any reason. I dont understand this!

Sadly this is legally acceptable. It is what the sending bank and receiving bank signed up to in order to have a correspondence banking relationship with the reference bank . Plus Dubai is a grey listed country.

Hopefully it all gets solved.

 

[misterta]

Sadly this is legally acceptable. It is what the sending bank and receiving bank signed up to in order to have a correspondence banking relationship with the reference bank . Plus Dubai is a grey listed country.

Hopefully it all gets solved.

This is really bad and now I am afraid of giving european customers again this bank details for payments. Hope this was a exzeption and not all transfers to my Dubai company in Euro will blocked now