Dear readers,
I have now been living permanently in Thailand for a few months now. That works well, there is one thing that surprises me, that is the mail / correspondence that I have had with ING during the past few months. ING asks a number of questions that I have now answered, with the necessary insinuations and with the statement that if I do not answer, my ING account will be blocked. ING “must” ask these questions because of money laundering and illegal practices.
Personally, I think the questions go too far, all the money that goes into and out of this account is accounted for (salary/pension) from the Netherlands.
What I wanted to know is whether ING is allowed to ask these questions and whether more readers are confronted with these questions?
Contact about this is extremely difficult with ING and often no response. Why do I have to report to ING what my assets/savings are? The question if I own a house in Thailand? I was confused for a while and thought I was dealing with the tax authorities!!
Hopefully there are answers.
Regards,
Harry
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The answer is quite simple: yes they can. In fact, they are legally obliged to do so (Wwft). And indeed if you don't cooperate then they will cancel your account, so I would cooperate.
See here: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/financiele-sector/aanpak-witwassen-en-financiering-terrorisme/veelgestelde-vragen-wwft
Peter's right. I've had the same thing with ABN. In the recent past, banks have had huge fines from the state for being passive in suspicious transactions or constructions. From the tone of such letters (personally extremely annoyed) you can only deduce that they really care about the fact that you have been a customer all your life. Better to give full disclosure to all questions, because they add action to word and inform the state!!
You used to be a customer and you received a gift when you opened an account with a bank, now they prefer to lose private individuals…too much hassle, too little return.
Get well soon.
The same applies in Belgium: you are obliged to provide proof of your assets.
As far as I know, that's what goes through your account at that particular bank. The money laundering law apparently stipulates that everything must be in order by 1 January 2023.
In principle, there also appears to be an obligation in Belgium – either by law or by the banks – to show up in person at your agency once a year.
At the said bank, everything is quite strange and cumbersome. So I closed my accounts.
With the sharply rising prices for plane tickets – a trend that has just started – the small interest on savings is completely lost if you also have to travel to Europe.
Your money is better placed in a foreign currency account in euros in a Thai bank and you wait until the political deadlock again later this year to exchange it in Thai Baht. But you also have to pay a hefty commission on that transaction.
My Thai wife and I live in the Netherlands for 5 months and in Thailand for 7 months. We both have an account with ING. We each received a separate letter with all kinds of questions and with a request for supporting documents. Everything neatly filled in with the supporting documents and after that everything was fine.
Dear Harry, your question was also asked on Thailandblog a few months ago with the same answer from Peter (editor). You must cooperate. Several ING customers have received these questions in their mailboxes, and indeed: very impertinent questions are being asked. If your answers ultimately apparently satisfy the ING Know Your Customer department (no explanation is given as to why or the intention behind the nature of the question), things will naturally calm down. It is strange that Thailand blog readers who are customers of other banks rarely report being confronted with money laundering investigations. That is why I think that ING has become stricter in its teaching because ING has been lax against money laundering practices for many years and has been dealt with firmly. https://nos.nl/artikel/2448382-ing-opnieuw-betrokken-bij-witwaszaak Too bad top executives have never been singled out individually. In that world, many people earn a hefty salary, but also some hefty taps on the fingers.
By the way: it is not necessary to immediately expose your buttocks when answering the questions. You would be wise not to take the situation so personally. It's not about you, ING wants to make its street look clean. For example, regarding questions regarding the sale of our home in the Netherlands, I referred to the Funda advertisement and a link to the broker's website. Everything was found fine. When asked why I went to Thailand, I only replied: “family circumstances”. Did well too. ING collects a monthly foreign surcharge from every account holder abroad, in addition to a fee. I think they are worth something too.
Dear Harry,
I recently experienced the same thing, lived in Thailand for a month, first it was my Thai wife's turn, when she had answered the questions neatly, it was my turn a month later. I too have answered these questions truthfully. They also asked to have my ID re-identified at an office in the Netherlands, while I had recently done so in the Netherlands. On the advice of a reader here, I have not heard anything since my passport, which was legalized by the Dutch embassy in BKK, digitally submitted to ING, so I assume it is ok.
And why? I suspect because my wife has transferred part of her savings via wise to her Thai account, because she is going to live here again, and it is cheaper to withdraw money from her Thai account. And I transferred money via wise to my Thai account, because I have to meet the requirement of 800.000 baht to extend my NON O visa for one year.
The ING has been sleeping for years, and has done nothing against money laundering. They have been sentenced to pay a huge fine.
They are so pagus that things go wrong again, which is why they now throw out dragnets.
I have been in contact with a lawyer in the Netherlands and he advised me to just answer, ING is going crazy he said literally, but if you want to keep your account, you are obliged to answer.
It's now been a few months and I haven't heard anything from ING
Rudolf
Have been getting these letters from ING for years.
The last letter stated:
Despite several requests, you have not yet communicated your country of residence for tax purposes to us. Based on the information we have about you, we suspect that you are a tax resident of the Netherlands and Thailand. We pass this on to the Dutch tax authorities.
So no word has been said about the possible cancellation of the account.
The same happens at Argenta. Because I asked if I could send money back to Belgium, I was initially told “no”. I then had to provide proof of all transactions over the last 10 years. I sent a file of 72 A4 pages…It was still not enough. Now I am being asked to also send copies of my tax return and details of the transactions. I think this goes a long way. Argenta's bank statements do not show whether I bought a jar of jam or a piece of chocolate... Every year, as a pensioner, I receive a "proposal" for payment from the tax authorities, which I always accepted... why should the Will the bank also intervene in this? When Fortis almost went bankrupt 10 years ago and the shares evaporated, "the bank" did not reimburse me and thousands of others either...
I also had this with the KNAB bank a year ago.
All questions answered properly. Go really far with the questions.
Due to the WWFT and the fines imposed on banks.