[2018-04-28] Bank of America Is Closing My Three-Year-Old's Account Over Crypto

[BitcoinArsenal]

My daughter is 3 years old. Bank of America is closing her bank account on May 4 because of her "risk profile" and, it would appear, her "connection" with the crypto space.
Full article on Coindesk

[1Referee]

I would have been cool to sent them a note stating; at a later point people won't need your services anymore, but can we please continue our professional relation with your bank till that point? Thanks!

The only solution to this is to actually ditch that bank and move on to the next 'best' bank. I have had to deal with this situation some years ago, and dealt with it exactly like that. I opened a bank account elsewhere and digitally withdrew all my savings and regular funds to the other bank account. Funny thing is that I had to withdraw everything in 3 batches because of security reasons, they stated. 1 batch per 24 working hours. Thus far everything is fine and thankfully haven't had any problems/complaints from the bank. If they don't want my (or basically anyone else's) business because of some shitty non reasons, then definitely f*ck them.

[Kprawn]

The thing is, Banks know that some people use accounts like this to divert the attention away from things like money

laundering and even "scams". Some people do not have a problem, using their kids as a smoke screen and would use any

method available to them, to hide illegal activities. This is just another example why we should not use 3rd party services to

store our wealth and even the wealth of our children. 

[richardsNY]

If they don't want my (or basically anyone else's) business because of some shitty non reasons, then definitely f*ck them.

For real. It's not that it is against the law or anything, so in practical and common terms, they should allow people to use their bank accounts in their preferred way. Banks however can't stand it that most people wire money to crypto exchanges, mostly landing in foreign bank accounts. It's a capital shift they see as a potential threat, which is somewhat understandable from the bank's perspective, but not from the user's perspective. It's limiting people's productivity and efficiency, which is something a bank or government should never want to happen, but it still does. Good thing however is that there are different banks with each a different view on everything that's crypto related....

[Qartersa]

I am not entirely sure how your banking laws work but in ours, children below 7 years old cannot own any bank accounts. Anyhow if this is the case in your country, I wonder how they are able to see for themselves if an account is risky or risk averse to any cryptocurrency-related accounts? I mean, unless big Exchanges have already sold its clients' information? Until such time, I cannot fathom as to why this has happened in your case? Well perhaps you have signed up to anything that reveals your connection or cryptocurrency activity? I hope you elaborate further so we can assess your situation better.

Nevertheless I think this is hurting the freedom America has always been fighting for.

[Lucius]

BoA is closing 3 years old account of some child,but also both accounts of her parents.What is strange in that?This is the internal decision of the bank based on some of their rules or on their stupidity.It is possible that this is about her father management company who invest in crypto,so bank is decide to close all 3 accounts.Since all of this happening in the country of the "free" I am not one bit surprised-they should be happy that some three letter agency did not knock on their door and the social service did not take away the child.

[aso118]

My daughter is 3 years old. Bank of America is closing her bank account on May 4 because of her "risk profile" and, it would appear, her "connection" with the crypto space.
Full article on Coindesk

The funny part is that they are doing so on an adhoc basis. Why don't they just state that cryptocurrency related transactions are against their terms and conditions? They want the flexibility of retaining the accounts of millionaires, while closing the accounts of small individuals who dealt in crypto.

[hatshepsut93]

I'm curious what is the reason of this, since it's not the first time we hear about banks closing accounts of people who have cryptocurrency-related transactions. Are banks scared of some risks of money laundering and other illegal activities, or are they simply trying to hurt people who use cryptocurrencies to prevent mass adoption?

[BitHodler]

Are banks scared of some risks of money laundering and other illegal activities, or are they simply trying to hurt people who use cryptocurrencies to prevent mass adoption?

It's probably a mixture of everything, but it largely comes down to crypto forming a threat to their business structure. Another possibility is that they are looking to hammer down on everything because of their own plans.

Nowadays we more and more hear about how banks are interested in developing their own crypto 'trading desk', and this might be somewhat related to it. It could be seen as early elimination of competitors.

With how crypto exchanges gain more popularity, their fee income is growing as well, and that might be the underlying incentive for banks to cut off any connections from and to these exchanges. It definitely could be that.

It's an easy but yet very effective way to deal with competition. Just think about it, if there legally isn't a problem to let people and businesses use their bank accounts like that, there shouldn't be a reason to close them.