Suddenly Josefine Roos could not use her accounts.
The bank had blocked her because of suspected fraudulent payments.
For six months, she did not get an answer to a single question, but one day the message came from Swedbank – we no longer want you as a customer.
– You stand there, you have small children, you can’t buy food, you can’t pay your bills, says Josefine Roos.
The banks are forced to work against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. One of the measures may be to lock a consumer’s account if the bank has concerns about various transactions.
That banks lock bank accounts for their customers is one of the most common complaints received by the Consumers’ Banking and Finance Agency.
Josefine Roos from the municipality of Marks is one of those who one day could no longer access her money at Swedbank.
– You stand there, you have small children, you can’t buy food, you can’t pay your bills. You get absolutely no response back when you try to check what has happened and what it is based on. The only thing you get is: “you have to wait for a decision like everyone else.”
Five transactions
In total, there are five transactions totaling SEK 14,800 that the bank considered suspicious. Four swishes are from Josefine Roo’s partner and one payout is from the buy-and-sell app Vinted. She was given ten days to explain what it was all about.
– There are bills and things like that. There are no strange transactions and everything is marked with what it goes for. If you add up our swishes each month, even if they are small sums, it is always the same amount each month by and large.
After not being able to use her account for six months, she still had not received a response from Swedbank. Several of her bills went to collection before she could open a new account with another bank.
The Norwegian Banking and Finance Agency often receives complaints from consumers who have had their accounts frozen.
– We can state that based on the complaints that come to us here at the Consumers’ Banking and Finance Agency, terminated payment accounts have been the most common complaint in recent years, alongside various types of fraud. And over the past year, it has also grown to quite a few complaints where you haven’t been formally terminated yet, says Fredrik Nordquist, lawyer at the Consumer Banking and Finance Council.
Blocked bank ID
A few days after TV4 started asking questions to the bank, she was informed that the bank had terminated her as a customer and Swedbank has also blocked her bank ID for a year. But despite the suspicions, no police report has been made.
– I need a bank ID. I need to be able to make a schedule for how my children will go to kindergarten, I need to be able to log in to the pharmacy and order home medicine, for example. You need the damn bank ID for everything. You’re completely handicapped without it.
Swedbank has declined an interview with TV4. In an email, the bank’s press officer urges Josefine Roos to appeal the decision to Swedbank’s customer ombudsman.
Isn’t it good that the banks are working against money laundering and terrorism?
– Absolutely, that’s completely understandable. But should people who actually do the right thing for themselves and show that their backs are free be affected then?