Bank robbery

[KARL]

I arranged for my (retail) bank to send some money to a friend in India and the transfer went electronically (SWIFT) as an account-to-account transfer via my bank's merchant bank ABN Amro onward. My friend has not received the money but tracing things backward he has somehow been able to establish that the money is stuck at some intermediary stage in India, that all the original instructions were correct, but neither the head office of his own bank nor his actual branch have actually got hold of the funds. Swift transfers are typically expected to reach their destination within a matter of days, mine has so far taken more than five weeks. His bank advised that I should demand the money back to resolve this. My bank advises that much of the sum would be lost to charges if we do a recall and give the impression of believing that this outcome could not be resisted. I feel that not only has the system failed but if anyone should pay anything then the banks should. Is this a case where the banks can do what they like to with impunity sponge off their customers whom they let down. I don't need advice on how the banking system will fleece us, but it would be interesting to learn of knowledgeable opinions on the way this particular transaction went wrong and whether there is any recourse.

[khana]

When funds are transferred abroad, they tend to utilise an alternate Bank in the destination country as most of the time they do not have any of their own branches there. This is not always the case as the larger Banks eg HSBC have branches almost everywhere but for most Banks it is the case.
Sometimes, the funds are passed through a number of Banks hands before they reach the final destination account. Along the way, small charges are debited from the funds to cover the cost of handling the money.
Unfortunately, its not that uncommon for the funds to be delayed due to either the IBAN/Routing code being incorrect or some of the other details not matching properly.
I would ask your Bank to send a SWIFT message direct to the Bank in India confirming the payment details (check first to make sure they took them down correctly) and that should push the payment forward.

[KARL]

The problem is not any error in the transfer instructions and my friend has established that the (his) receiving bank knows the funds are expected. The receiving bank has enquired (the rod up the spout) and somehow been able to confirm the money is in an intermediary in India (and that the instructions were correct). But I don't know which intermediary plus the receiving bank appears to have no faith in the money being delivered so recommends asking for it back. My problem is that my bank says they cannot prevent much or all of the money being eaten up in fees before coming back and neither my friend or I can promote release of it in India. Is this something that the system considers normal - if so, to me it pongs.

[khana]

I'm sorry to hear that there has been so many problems with the transfer.

As your Bank has said, once the money has left their hands they have very little control over it and any fees that are deducted along the way.

Unfortunately, asking for the funds to be returned will incurr a charge, but I have to point out that during this whole process, its not your Bank receiving the charges or proffiting in any way, apart from the initial charge made by them to send the funds (typically under �30, but depends on the amount).

If all the payment details are correct then all you can do is get your Bank to keep on hassling the intermediary in India.

It may be worth asking for an MT100 form from your Bank which will confirm the payment details and this can be passed on to the beneficiary so he can use it to aid the receiving Bank.