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Carolyn C

1 reviews | Active since Oct 2021

13 Oct 2021, 18:43

FICA process with FNB Non-resident banking division is turning out to be a nightmare

I am very unhappy with the way FNB Non-resident remediation team has been handling a simple FICA issue on my mother's account. She is a foreign national who opened the account in 2009 when she and my recently deceased father bought property in South Africa as an investment. When they bought the property my father was a diplomat at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and they were based in Zambia. Apparently FNB then had no problem opening the bank account. But now that my father is deceased (July 2021), and my mother has moved back to her home country, FNB has seen it fit to block her bank account even when as of last month she signed their forms for non-resident account holders and provided them with all the supporting documents that they requested to show that she is a non-resident. I view this as client profiling based on foreign nationality because I cannot understand what the delay is in the FICA process, especially since she has done this FICA process before several years back with no issues. Not only has this entire process caused extreme mental strain to a grieving widow, but she cannot pay for the property's levy and rates for this month, and neither can she receive the rentals into the account which is what the account was set up for. That account is purely for upkeep of the property and transactions within South Africa and none of those funds have ever been externalised. If FNB are no longer interested in my mother's business, they should let us know so that we can disinvest our funds with them and close the account. There are other banks in South Africa that will welcome her business.

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