Anthony Miller, the CEO of Westpac, apologized to a customer on Wednesday after the bank froze their accounts and denied a $30,000 transfer to the Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSpot.
Earlier this month, Tim deposited $50,000 into his Westpac account with the purpose of utilizing some of it to buy Bitcoin on CoinSpot. However, the bank flagged and stopped the transaction, prompting a call from its risk management team.
Tim recorded the phone call and later shared it on Sydney’s 2GB radio, revealing a tense exchange with a bank representative. The staff member repeatedly questioned Tim’s intentions, claiming that his response lacked transparency and raised concerns.
“I am genuinely trying my best to help you out as best as possible,” the staff member said in the recording. “But I feel as though, so far, you are trying to tiptoe around the answers and simply tell me what you think I want to hear to have this pushed through as soon as possible.“
Tim was unable to access his money for a few days because Westpac froze his bank account due to the banned transaction. Tim claimed that because of the delay, he lost out on possible gains because Bitcoin’s value increased over that period.
Miller personally apologized to Tim on 2GB radio on Wednesday, acknowledging that the bank had handled the matter improperly. Although Miller defended Westpac’s more comprehensive anti-scam procedures, pointing out that one out of every five cryptocurrency-related transactions reported in the previous month involved fraud, the bank has to enhance how it handles these kinds of customer interactions.
Not only that, Westpac’s executive unknowingly left Tim a voicemail meant for a colleague. In that message, the executive praised the bank staff’s handling of the call, despite the resulting backlash. Wasn’t it enough for a customer to get frustrated?
However, after such a bad experience, Tim decided to shift his bank account elsewhere by closing the one with Westpac. Westpac is one of the Big four banks in Australia, which control the majority of the nation’s banking industry and have significant influence in retail as well as corporate banking.
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