What's up with Nordea these days?

[Nimi]

Hey, similar issues had these investments meetings on bond and shares issues with Nordea advisors in the bank quite not interested because they are not just profitable for me and also the associated risk in the investment, should there is or are trouble in the market you may be loosing some part of your invested cash so I did not invest in them yet. Funny thing is they ask questions like how you got the money in your account ? where you get the money you are depositing ? These are small amount of money to be questioned about and also a Kantaasiakas with them it makes me feel insecured banking with them.

I hope they should re- strategies the approach to sale their products to clients, By not scaring the investor off even before investing.

[betelgeuse]

Now another threaten letter from bank saying I need to visit the local branch to update my info or else my account might be suspended. 8 years of banking, 5 years with Credit card, 4 years paid loan instalments (still paying), all the salary comes in that bank, all the expenditure is from same bank, they have my Name, Phone, Email, Address, SSN, etc. What else more info they need?

They have requirements set by law (FACTA, money laundering etc) to collect information. Since you became a customer before the requirements were enacted they are now collecting the info from you. They do have the capability to collect it with online meetings and online banking. I am not sure why the letter only talk about visiting a branch. I have also been a customer there for quite a few years and had an online meeting a couple months back. It started with them collecting various information. Weird thing about the collection was that I had visited my personal contact not so long before so I would have thought it to be handled then.

[betelgeuse]

All this Nordea bullcrap puts me in difficult position, S-Bank doesn't want to give me credit card as I am their new customer, I guess its same with other banks. I may have to wait two years with other banks to even be qualified for credit card, let alone loan.

My experience is that S-Bank has differing criteria from other banks for issuing credit cards. I have multiple stories of people being denied credit cards (myself included) there when it was not an issue elsewhere.

[caster]

They required by law to get the details of their customers to curb identity theft and to control money laundering - in case of any breach they should already know that you do not remit funds overseas so if your account have been compromised, they can deal with it fast.

To comply with the legislation mainly what they need to know is:
- Savings (only with them or any other bank - is there any cash that you bank at home - or under the tree trunk)
- Remittances (did you remit any big funds abroad last year or this year, if yes where and why and to whom)
- Cash (how much transactions you do in cash)

[Rosamunda]

Maybe you should take this up with the ombudsman. FATCA or no FATCA (Cory is not from the USA) it seems unreasonable that Americans (or any other ethnic group) would be treated differently to anyone else.

Gross.

[caster]

Well these were the main questions I answered. Early this year I got the form in post and somehow took that to the branch myself to know why they need to know the stuff they already knows. Afterwards I realised that's merely a formality that they must comply to. As CSIs say everyone a suspect until checked out clean and eliminated from the list.

[Bavarian]

Its none of their business how much I save or how much I have in my bank at home. It might become state's business if I try to bring the amount from home to Finland (as they'll ask to share the dog's bone i.e. tax).

Sure it should be none of their business, but the US through FATCA are trying to outsource all of this information gathering onto the banks. It's thoroughly obnoxious.

Maybe you should take this up with the ombudsman. FATCA or no FATCA (Cory is not from the USA) it seems unreasonable that Americans (or any other ethnic group) would be treated differently to anyone else.

The only other solution is for these banks to stop doing any dollar-denominated business (eg. having a subsidiary in the States). Yes, the way FATCA is doing this to foreign banks is horrible. Unfortunately, there's little chance of getting rid of FATCA because you've got TEAM BLUE using it to hate on people with "too much" money, and TEAM RED using it to hate on the possibility of terrorists or drug cartels laundering money. And none of them give a crap about the Americans abroad demographic.

[Jukka Aho]

I got redirected to the previously-mentioned online questionnaire the last time I logged in to Nordea's online banking service. (I am a native-born citizen and have had the same account in the same branch since I was 13 years old.)

There have been news stories about this recent practice:

• Nordea julkaisi tiedotteen: Näin pankki selittää vanhojen asiakkaiden tenttaamista
• "Oletko sinä tai perheenjäsenesi poliittisesti vaikutusvaltainen henkilö?" Pankki kysyy tätä oikeasti

There's also this PDF brochure published by the Federation of Finnish Financial Services:

• Know Your Customer - why do banks ask?

Many (all?) Finnish banks have basically the same information (copied from the above-mentioned brochure) on their website.

But it is also true, of course, that banks are now using this requirement as an excuse to call their customers to meetings where they're trying to push more of their products and services to the captive audien... er... I mean, customer.

[tjawatts]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... s-i9uyxw7d

Regulator doesnt think Nordea is doing a good enough job on AML

I also got asked the question when I recently "moved back" to Finland and met my bank advisor. It is not FACTA related but general money laundering stuff.

The main idea is that they know what is normal for you. So if you send money all the time to your family abroad that is fine (they dont want to know the exact amounts). If they dont know why you are making or receiving large payments from abroad your payments might get investigated or even stopped.

T

[Rip]

Native born, still have the same account and basically same number that was opened around age six in SYP, which means I had had it longer than almost all the non-natives and good number of natives on this board have been living in this country. There is the questionnaire in my net bank. The connection to the Bloomberg news seems fairly clear too. Laws and their interpretation have become stricter over the years. and Nordea is (at least for most part) just trying to comply. If some other bank is asking less questions for now, don't expect that to last.

[Nimi]

Agreed we need some laws to maintainpeace and order. Way to many laws and regulations. If we do it, then they regulate it or outlaw it. I can't think of much in this world, that isn't regulated by either local, state or federal government.

The common law system are even becoming very confusing to many people. Although, common sense and real concern for what is right is all we should need. They are becoming scary and paternalistic and making people alot dumber and intimidated.

- No Cigarrete adverts - Stop the producing companies to stop the production if they are unhealthy to consume! No we cannot we have lot of taxes and fines from them good for the economy.
- Even scared of travelling with family to some countries on holidays because they have been tagged friends of the evil terrorists, if you do travel there you become a suspect.
- Money transfer ? oH NO bIG BROTHER IS WATCHING you can be a suspect too.

Way too many LAWS AND REGULATION. You can't seem to do anything these days without breaking some law.

We all better need to become Lawyers and Law students, else very complicated to remember all of them.

[flyingyellowpig]

I've an account with Ålands Banken Boulevardi branch for almost 10 years and I never had them bothering me with useless bs's . Most of the times when I need to visit their branch, I do not need to wait in long queueslike most other banks and their staff is very friendly.
I had an account with Nordea and Op before and I hate them.

[interleukin]

I have Ålandsbanken too, and they have been asking some basic info lately, but things that I guess they have to ask (basic things that could be anti-money laundering/terrorist info). Nothing aggressive.

[Rosamunda]

Nordea had something similar on its website a while back.