Standard Bank fails on international payments

It is with great disappointment that I send this message on behalf of our client, Mrs Marilyn Joy Jacobs. Mrs Jacobs went to the Standard bank Greenstone mall branch on 01/06/2023 to transfer funds from her current account to a new investment in the Isle of Man with Old Mutual International. She wanted to invest funds in Australian Dollars. We were assisted by Matlou Mamabolo at the Forex desk. Please see documents attached completed in the branch. We were contacted by Old Mutual International on 13/06/2023 requesting the SWIFT document from Standard bank as they could not locate the funds on their side. I requested this from Matlou via email numerous times, but received no feedback. I went to the Greenstone Mall branch on 20/06/2023 to see Matlou and get the swift document only to be told the release has not been done yet as she is battling with the system. She also could not reply to my emails the week before as she was on leave. I spent 3 hours in the branch with Matlou while she struggled to get the Swift done. This was sent to Old Mutual International. (Please see Swift document attached) We were again contacted by Old Mutual International on 26/06/2023 requesting Standard bank to trace the funds as it was still not reflecting on their side. I forwarded the request to Matlou, but again received no feedback. I went to the branch on 30/06/2023 and spoke to the second in charge, Winston. He told me Matlou was on leave (again) and that is why she did not reply to my emails. He assured me that they would look into it and give me feedback by the Monday morning. This turned out to be another empty promise. Mrs Jacobs and myself have since spoken to Matlou and her team leader and we were both informed that the funds will be paid back into Mrs Jacob’s account as they are unable to transfer the funds to the Isle of Man as Standard bank is not part of the common wealth. They confirmed that the funds have already been converted into Australian Dollars. As the AUS Dollar have declined against the Rand since the conversion was done, they wanted to wait to get a better rate before refunding the money to Mrs Jacobs. We have a couple of issues to address: The client has lost out on over a month’s worth of interest due to the funds not being transferred to her new investment. Standard bank will have to be liable for the loss. The client cannot be expected to wait indefinitely for her funds to be refunded to her due to Standard bank waiting for a more favourable exchange rate Should Standard bank not be able to complete the transfer to the Isle of Man, all transaction fees must be refunded to the client Your urgent response with regards to the above will be appreciated. Please note the same complaint will be posted on Hello Peter. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.