Transactional Hold On Business Account

<p>My company received an sms notification from FNB on Friday 17 June 2016 at 17:38 pm that read the following "Due to non-submission of Fica (KYC) documents,a transactional hold will be placed on the accounts of "******'. Please contact ********** 405. FNB a div of FRB Ltd.</p> <p> </p> <p>We immediately contacted the number on the sms and realised the number was not functional. On Monday morning 20 June we proceeded to call the FNB Business hotline number. The contact number as provided on the sms and it was still not functional.</p> <p>We informed the FNB consultant of the sms and requested that an e-mail be sent to us that specified the exact documentation that we needed to submit since we had NEVER RECEIVED ANY NOTIFICATION FROM FNB PRIOR TO THE 17TH OF JUNE THAT WE NEEDED TO SUBMIT ANY DOCUMENTATION OF THE AFOREMENTIONED NATURE WHATSOEVER.</p> <p> </p> <p>The consultant assured us that a transactional hold will not be placed on our business account and that the email as requested will be sent immediately. We did not receive any emails from FNB on the 20th and 21st of June and received another threat sms (AFTER HOURS AGAIN!) on 21 June at 18:42pm. The sms read the following "FNB 'alien figure' Urgent: Due to non-submission of FICA (KYC) documents, a transactional hold will be placed on the accounts of '***xx' , tomorrow. Please contact ********** 505. FNB a div of FRB Ltd.</p> <p> </p> <p>The contact number as provided was the same as previous and not functional. On the morning of the 22nd of June (In fear of a total business stand still of our business) We rushed to the FNB Gezina branch (where our business account is registered) to meet with the branch manager in order to resolve the issue at hand. Whilst we were on our way to the bank an E-mail from FNB suddenly came through.</p> <p>The e-mail was entitled 'Fica documents required [Ref:***x]'. In part the e-mail read the following : 'Please reply and attach the above FICA (KYC) documentation without changing the subject line of the e-mail within the next 7 calendar days after date of this mail.'.</p> <p> </p> <p>Due to the seriosness of the matter we still proceeded to the FNB Gezina branch. Upon arrival we requested to meet with the Branch Manager or any other senior manager. We were told by the staff on the floor that no senior management was available and that we had to 'take a ticket' at the front entrance and that we had to sit in the que before a consultant would be able to assist us.</p> <p> </p> <p>We eventually got assisted by a consultant whom we explained the matter to. We were ONCE AGAIN ASSURED THAT OUR BUSINESS ACCOUNT WILL NOT BE PLACED ON A TRANSACTIONAL HOLD. The consultant did pick up the e-mail on the system that was sent to us and indicated we still have time to submit the necessary documentation. The consultant however indicated that we had to submit the original signed documents to any branch by hand. The aforementioned complicated our situation due to the fact that the owner (of the property where our businsess is operated from) was in the EASTERN CAPE. The original signed documents had to be couriered back to GAUTENG in order to be handed over by hand to FNB.</p> <p> </p> <p>Needless to say a transactional hold was placed on our entire business account on the morning of 23 June 2016. Due to the nature of our drilling contracting business we purchase Diesel on day to day basis and our drilling operations are at a near standstill (at time of writing this letter).</p> <p> </p> <p>Due to the close proximity of the FNB Pretoria North branch to our business we met with senior managment just after 9 AM (23 June) this morning to try and resolve the issue. We were told that they were not capable to lift the transactional hold. Even after we supp**** them with the e-mail that indicated the 7 calander day period we had to submit the required documentation. The Senior management indicated to us that in order for a different department to lift the transactional hold they would require the documents with immediate effect.</p> <p>The abovementioned is totally unprofessional by FNB and is currently causing our business to incur a fincancial loss.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>