Holding my money hostage because of FICA

They are holding my money hostage because of FICA on a non-res account I've had open for 2 years.

I wired some money from my overseas account to my Absa account. After answering the questions to clear the funds I was told that I would need to do a FICA update either online or at a branch. So I went to the Woodlands branch only to be told that I could only do it online.

So I submitted the requested documents and the same day received a message stating that I was fica compliant. So the next business day I contacted the bank to release my wired in funds only to be told that my account is still under FICA lock and to visit a branch.

This time I visited the Ireney branch only to be told that they cannot do the FICA for me and to upload the documents again. Do I did that. The next day I received another e-mail stating that my FICA was updated and that I was FICA compliant.

This time I called the wires department to see if the KYC hold had been lifted only to be informed that it had not been. Next I went into the Menlyn Park branch to see if they could help me. The representative reached out to the department and was told that all they could do was to send a response to the message I received saying that the FICA was successful. They did that, CC'd me and then said that they would forward any follow up messages.

The next day, today, I called to see if the call center could help me. They said they would escalate the issue. Then they called back to say that one document I sent was un-readable and that I needed to re-send my documents. So I did that and am waiting for a reply.

So now we are a week into this, I have people I need to pay and can't because of this.

As a potential backup, and experiment, yesterday I walked into an FNB branch and tried opening a non-res account there. Unlike ABSA, where I had to make several trips to open my account, FNB processed my application on the spot, required less documentation only a Passport vs ABSA that wants a passport and proof of foreign address and within an hour I had my online access set up and made my first deposit. That evening I wired some money from my US account and within 2 hours the money was in my new account that I had just set up. ABSA would have taken a day to clear those funds.

Today I made my first small payment with the FNB account that I opened yesterday while ABSA has been holding my money hostage for a week after I had done business with them for 2 years.

Needless to say I am really struggling with why I should continue to use ABSA given these two very different experiences.