Local man fights bank after losing his life savings

Cape Town - A 23-year-old Cape Town man is fighting Absa Bank for his life savings which he lost in a transfer facilitated by an employee in the bank’s Sea Point branch.

It took Richard Wolff more than three years of working overseas to save R100 000 to fund his studies at film school.

Now he is facing the prospect of having to start over, after losing his savings in an inter-bank transfer that went wrong.

In late September, when the minimum balance in his Seafarer Offshore Account (an account with Standard Bank Isle of Man) dropped to below e2500, Wolff went into Absa’s Sea Point branch to transfer the savings from his Absa account into the Isle of Man account.

Wolff planned to leave the savings in the offshore account until early next year, when he was due to begin studying.He said he went into the branch because he was worried about transferring such a large sum online.

“I needed professional help. I told the lady at the enquiries counter what I wanted to do and was expecting to be sent to a forex desk, but she said she could help me herself.”

Wolff said he wasn’t required to sign a document, which he thought was odd.

“Her fingers were just flying over the keyboard, so I handed her my phone to show her the account number on my bank statement and that it was an international account. I wanted to make sure she had the right account number.”

When the transaction was apparently done, Wolff was given a document entitled “Instruction Detail for Instruction No: 1”, reflecting his Absa and Standard Bank account numbers and that both accounts were in the name of RC Wolff.

He was told it would take three to five days for the funds to reflect in the destination account.

Seven days later, when there was still no sign of the money in his offshore account, he went back to the branch. He sat for three hours with the woman who had done the transfer while she made “countless” calls to the Standard Bank to try to locate his money.

Eventually he was told that if the beneficiary details he had provided did not tally with the recipient’s details, the money would lie in the Standard Bank’s suspense account, so he need not worry.

Two weeks later, Wolff said the Absa employee phoned him to say she had spoken telephonically to his wife, Mimi, and confirmed that the funds had been received.

Wolff was horrified. He is not married, and even if he had been, it is irregular for a bank to confirm receipt of funds with anyone other than the account holder.

Realising his money had been paid into the wrong account, Wolff asked Absa to ensure a hold was placed on the recipient’s account.

The branch manageress told him this had been done. But he has since discovered that the Standard Bank customer who received his money had withdrawn it all.

Absa has advised Wolff to lay a charge against the recipient of his money, but won’t tell him who the recipient was.

Nor would the Standard Bank.

An Absa spokeswoman said this week: “Where one wants to pursue a claim against an unintended, unidentified beneficiary, one must lay a charge with the police, who will then obtain a subpoena in terms of section 205 of the Criminal Procedures Act instructing

the bank to disclose the

beneficiary account holder’s information.”

A devastated Wolff spent a few nights alone in the Cederberg this week, trying to come to terms with his loss. “I did absolutely nothing wrong. It’s the most frustrating thing.”

He said he had lodged a complaint against Absa with the Banking Ombudsman. “We aren’t taught about banking at school when you have this amount in the bank, you put all your trust in the bank... I went into the branch precisely because I didn’t know how to do the transfer. I expected the bank to know.”

Wolff is emphatic that he made it clear to Absa that he was transferring funds into an offshore account. Absa has denied this. A friend who was with Wolff at the time, has filed an affidavit in support of his claim.

And he said the bank’s CCV footage would show that he handed his phone to the branch employee to show her his bank statement.

Banking Ombudsman Clive Pillay said Absa told his office there was no camera above the teller and available video footage covered the banking hall only.

But Wolff has taken a photograph of the camera above the enquiries desk and this week an Absa spokesperson told Personal Finance that the bank did, in fact, have video footage of Wolff doing the transaction.

Absa’s spokeswoman said: “The allegation that a cellphone was handed over to bank staff is not true.” The bank had since handed evidence to the ombudsman to support this.

She said Wolff’s transaction was processed via the bank’s “end-to-end system”, which was entirely electronic. The customer would be required to sign for the transaction on a digipad.

“No printouts are generated but if the customer requests proof of the payment, the staff member has the option to print.”

Pillay said the principal duties of a bank in effecting a credit transfer are to perform its mandate “timeously, in good faith and without negligence”. The customer also has a duty of care to issue instructions to the bank with due diligence.

He said banks also had to comply with Treating Customers Fairly outcomes.

“These outcomes require financial service providers

to render services honestly, fairly, with due skill care and diligence and in the interests of the client.”

Personal Finance