Drat! Sony Bank bounced funds wired from Firstrade

[northSaver]

Probably not much help if you're wiring a significant chunk, but I've wired from Interactive Brokers UK to Shinsei bank four times in the last year, each time just under a million yen. I've nothing to hide, just wanted to avoid the questions and paperwork. Each time the funds arrived promptly with no questions asked. It's even better if you're on one of the higher levels at Shinsei and qualify for free international deposits. Otherwise it costs 2000 yen each time (flat fee).

[ChapInTokyo]

Anyone have any experience of receiving wired funds via Shinsei?

In the past I have sent reasonable amounts of money (up to 10 million yen) to Shinsei with no problem. But that was a while ago and they might have gotten worse.

I’m going to give Shinsei a try.

The funds that Sony bounced is now back in my Firstrade account and to add insult to injury Firstrade debited $30 as a “transfer cancellation charge”! I never imagined getting my own money back from an overseas broker would be at the mercy of some faceless and unaccountable functionaries at my bank. Sigh…

[ChapInTokyo]

So this is how Sony Bank explained it to Firstrade:
‘AS DUE TO OUR BK POLICY’. They’re a law unto themselves.

—
The outgoing wire processed on 06/xx/2024 (Ref #Txxxxxx) has been returned to your Firstrade account ending in xxx. We have received the following message(s) from the receiving bank:

• AS DUE TO OUR BK POLICY

If you have any additional questions, please contact your receiving bank for more details.

Sincerely,
Firstrade Securities Inc.
—

[sutebayashi]

Well at least I suppose the policy makers might think you should feel happy that thanks to the inconvenience and cost you suffer as a law abiding person, the world is also a little bit tougher for money launderers because of these regulations and rules.

It’s a clown show this world.

But I wonder if it had been a transfer from a bank account in your name rather than a financial services provider it might have passed their ridiculous criteria.

[ChapInTokyo]

I wonder! The remittance from Apex Clearing actually had my name and address as the sender so to all intents and purposes the only thing I could imagine is that Apex has suddenly gotten themselves on Sony’s blacklist between May and June because Sony landed my May remittance from Firstrade without any issues.

I can understand anti-spam filters keeping their detection criteria secret but having a bank whose anti money laundering false positives are not open to scrutiny or correction is just not worth the hassle. Sony’s top tier exchange rate and nifty debit card cash back rates are not enough to offset the $25 wire charge and $30 transfer cancellation charge at Firstrade they’ve cost me not to mention the week of wasted time. Sheesh!

[ChapInTokyo]

Probably not much help if you're wiring a significant chunk, but I've wired from Interactive Brokers UK to Shinsei bank four times in the last year, each time just under a million yen. I've nothing to hide, just wanted to avoid the questions and paperwork. Each time the funds arrived promptly with no questions asked. It's even better if you're on one of the higher levels at Shinsei and qualify for free international deposits. Otherwise it costs 2000 yen each time (flat fee).

Thanks. I tested out Shinsei this week with a USD remittance from Sony Bank and the money arrived without any request from Shinsei for documentation of any sort. It may be because it wasn't from overseas, but wheras Sony Bank seems to require documentation regardless of whether the foreign currency wire is from within Japan or from abroad, it seems that Shinsei is more of the old school.

With regard to fees, Shinsei did deduct a 14 usd flat fee as a lifting charge I think they call it, but apparently they are going to refund 2000 yen to my account in due course, so that is pretty decent. The refund is probably because I was able to bag a 'platinum' customer status by signing up to their SBI Connect quick transfer arrangement with SBI Securities.