Bitstamp BLOCKs withdrawals to verified users

[bananas]

Bitstamp are exposed to AML and KYC regulations. If you don't understand this, or don't want to be faced with AML/KYC - don't deal with Bitstamp. It's as simple as that. No one has a gun to your head.

It's just naive to give fake names to a company which has to comply with AML/KYC and not expect it to cause problems.

Question is, at what point KYC/AML can and should go? Their procedures are unheard of.

And the most important, KYC/AML applies to money only. BTC is not money. It is just like a pan, an e-book or a banana.

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[5flags]

Question is, at what point KYC/AML goes? Their procedures are unheard of.

And the most important, it apllies to money only. BTC is not money. It is just like a pan, an e-book or a banana.

What is Bitstamp? What do you use Bitstamp for?

[bananas]

Question is, at what point KYC/AML goes? Their procedures are unheard of.

And the most important, it apllies to money only. BTC is not money. It is just like a pan, an e-book or a banana.

What is Bitstamp? What do you use Bitstamp for?

Buying and selling. It is like the e-Bay. Even if they are registered as a finacial institution, BTC is  not money. They may apply some procedure regarding money you sent there, only money. BTC is not money.

[eldentyrell]

What is Bitstamp?

Good question.

[5flags]

Buying and selling. It is like the e-Bay. Even if they are registered as a finacial institution, BTX is still not money. They may apply some procedure regarding money you sent there, only money. BTC is not money.

What do you buy BTC with? What do you sell it for?

[bananas]

Buying and selling. It is like the e-Bay. Even if they are registered as a finacial institution, BTX is still not money. They may apply some procedure regarding money you sent there, only money. BTC is not money.

What do you buy BTC with? What do you sell it for?

I personally trade for bananas. But it is not up to the business of any KYC/AML. Money deposit is one thing, BTC deposit is another.

[5flags]

I personally trade for bananas. But it is not up to the business of any KYC/AML.

Right. The famous BTC/Banana pair.

I think you're getting it. You're not buying and selling Bitcoins. You're buying and selling US Dollars. Perhaps it would help you to think of it that way.

[crazy_rabbit]

Question is, at what point KYC/AML goes? Their procedures are unheard of.

And the most important, it apllies to money only. BTC is not money. It is just like a pan, an e-book or a banana.

What is Bitstamp? What do you use Bitstamp for?

Buying and selling. It is like the e-Bay. Even if they are registered as a finacial institution, BTC is  not money. They may apply some procedure regarding money you sent there, only money. BTC is not money.

a) Bistamp is NOTHING like e-bay.

b) Bitcoin is considered most places as some sort of financial instrument or bearer bond or contract or whatever. The point being, most places DO recognise it as a surrogate for money. It's not a banana. And despite my funny "banana coin" comment at the San Jose Conference on the alt-coin panel- the government does indeed regulate bananas once you get to the volume the consider to be relevant to their interests.

So, you know. Citizen beware.

[crazy_rabbit]

I think we are all overlooking the second part of Bitstamp's AML compliance headline: "COUNTER TERRORIST FINANCING ("CTF") POLICY"

It's not just AML/KYC it's also those extremely vague and often abused Terrorist Financing laws.

So basically, throw any common sense you might have out the window.

[BlackBison]

I've filled it previously, sent them my id and bill and registration card. Then entered the bank data with swiftcode etc.

Now the ask for this:

We received your withdrawal request. As your withdrawal request met some of our volume and frequency thresholds, we will have to kindly ask you to help us better understand the nature of your relationship with Bitstamp. In order to do so, we require that an additional KYC (know your customer) procedure is completed before we can proceed with the processing of your transfer.

We kindly ask you to send us a high resolution image double page of your international passport and answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. The purpose of trading on Bitstamp?
3. What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins? If mining, please specify your hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment.
4. What are your future plans and activities planned on our exchange?
5. Do you plan more withdrawals in the future?
6. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.

We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket.

I was asked these questions when I made withdrawals in November/December 2013 from Bitstamp, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. I answered the questions and received my withdrawals as normal.

[MICRO]

I'm baffled by this as Bitstamp aren't widely known to pull these kind of bullshit manoeuvres but there have been complaints about this sort of thing with people who are from places like Slovakia, what country are you from?

Bitstamp is on balkan former Yugoslavia.

Isn't they from Bulgaria ? Well still former Yugoslavia.

Nono sorry btc-e is from Bulgaria. We here don't have any laws about that , in Serbia. So its good place for btc exchange. Also u can bribe anybody to get what u need, sooo....

[Rampion]

I've filled it previously, sent them my id and bill and registration card. Then entered the bank data with swiftcode etc.

Now the ask for this:

We received your withdrawal request. As your withdrawal request met some of our volume and frequency thresholds, we will have to kindly ask you to help us better understand the nature of your relationship with Bitstamp. In order to do so, we require that an additional KYC (know your customer) procedure is completed before we can proceed with the processing of your transfer.

We kindly ask you to send us a high resolution image double page of your international passport and answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. The purpose of trading on Bitstamp?
3. What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins? If mining, please specify your hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment.
4. What are your future plans and activities planned on our exchange?
5. Do you plan more withdrawals in the future?
6. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.

We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket.

I was asked these questions when I made withdrawals in November/December 2013 from Bitstamp, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. I answered the questions and received my withdrawals as normal.

Exactly the same for me.

To those screaming because of this: ANY company managing funds on behalf of third-parties is required to comply with both AML and KYC requirements.

1) AML is pretty straight forward. You need to ask a) ID and b) proof of residence of your customers. That's what all exchanges do to verify their customers and it is standard procedure.

2) KYC is trickier. There's no "official" procedure, but any company managing funds on behalf of third parties is required to "know their customers" - as broad as that definition might seem. If shit hits the fan and LE investigates one of the company's customers, the company needs to have as much info as possible on that customer to avoid to face any legal problems.

Summing up: to comply with current AML regulations an ID and proof of residence should be enough, but any company willing to avoid problems *must* do their own due diligence when they spot something suspicious. Probably none of our transfers/withdrawals were suspicious, but in my personal case I was asking a big fiat withdrawal. With *big* I mean an order of magnitude bigger than what I guess is the average withdrawal requested by a small-time trader. I'm not surprised Bitstamp is asking that kind of questions, and in my opinion they are as general and vague as they could be. In my case I also replied with vague answers ("I bought those Bitcoins a few years ago"; "I don't know when I will use your service again or how many bitcoins I will buy or sell in the future, it depends on the market", etc.). Bitstamp gave me the OK to those questions in 24 hours and processed that withdrawal the day after. It looks like they are doing what they should be doing: asking for as much info as possible to their "bigger volume" customers.

IMO there's absolutely nothing to be worried about and in fact it is good news that Bitstamp is gathering KYC info on their customers.

[GodfatherBond]

I've filled it previously, sent them my id and bill and registration card. Then entered the bank data with swiftcode etc.

Now the ask for this:

We received your withdrawal request. As your withdrawal request met some of our volume and frequency thresholds, we will have to kindly ask you to help us better understand the nature of your relationship with Bitstamp. In order to do so, we require that an additional KYC (know your customer) procedure is completed before we can proceed with the processing of your transfer.

We kindly ask you to send us a high resolution image double page of your international passport and answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. The purpose of trading on Bitstamp?
3. What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins? If mining, please specify your hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment.
4. What are your future plans and activities planned on our exchange?
5. Do you plan more withdrawals in the future?
6. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.

We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket.

I was asked these questions when I made withdrawals in November/December 2013 from Bitstamp, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. I answered the questions and received my withdrawals as normal.

If that's real what they are doing, Im not going to use them.
I can understand only question 4 and 6.
It's not their business if I mine, I can tell it, but no way to give " hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment."

This is getting absolutely grazy. I was about to move my things to Bitstamp including integrate online shops with them. I have already there verified account, but they can now do whatever they want. I will do my business at other places.

[Rampion]

I've filled it previously, sent them my id and bill and registration card. Then entered the bank data with swiftcode etc.

Now the ask for this:

We received your withdrawal request. As your withdrawal request met some of our volume and frequency thresholds, we will have to kindly ask you to help us better understand the nature of your relationship with Bitstamp. In order to do so, we require that an additional KYC (know your customer) procedure is completed before we can proceed with the processing of your transfer.

We kindly ask you to send us a high resolution image double page of your international passport and answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. The purpose of trading on Bitstamp?
3. What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins? If mining, please specify your hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment.
4. What are your future plans and activities planned on our exchange?
5. Do you plan more withdrawals in the future?
6. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.

We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket.

I was asked these questions when I made withdrawals in November/December 2013 from Bitstamp, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. I answered the questions and received my withdrawals as normal.

If that's real what they are doing, Im not going to use them.
I can understand only question 4 and 6.
It's not their business if I mine, I can tell it, but no way to give " hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment."

This is getting absolutely grazy. I was about to move my things to Bitstamp including integrate online shops with them. I have already there verified account, but they can now do whatever they want. I will do my business at other places.

I didn't see the "submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment". When I was asked those questions they didn't ask for that, the question was just "What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins?".

[GodfatherBond]

Ok, then maybe those questions are fine and just standard "bank questions".

[bananas]

I just came from came from my bank(HSBC) , i had to solve some issues there and then went to the exchange department to ask about KYC/AML. Basically no new information.

The exchanger manager chief told me in a a nice chat, if you are sending money overseas from a financial institution you have an account with:

1) Less then 3 thousand dollars per month  there is absolutely no special requirements.

2) Over 3 thousand dollars they require you to declare the nature of the deposit and a document proving it. I.e. You are a company sending money to your employee in another country, you have to show the emplyee contarct.

3) I showed him on my smartphone the Bitstamp procedure, he told that it was legit KYC/AML when you are sending money but that it is very unusual.

4) If you are just receiving money, there is no KYC/AML. It is up to the sender always.

5) The bank cannot froze your account if you fail on KTC/AML procedures. They will just refuse to send money overseas.

6) Bitcoin is not money, and so it out of the scope of any financial institutions/kyc/aml.

7) He has no idea what Bitstamp may legally be,  but still reincforced number 6 regardless of what they are.

The procedures on number 3, are to know the legal origin of money, if theyalready know ( I.e. you made an investment with them ), it just does make not any sense.

[erre]

I've filled it previously, sent them my id and bill and registration card. Then entered the bank data with swiftcode etc.

Now the ask for this:

We received your withdrawal request. As your withdrawal request met some of our volume and frequency thresholds, we will have to kindly ask you to help us better understand the nature of your relationship with Bitstamp. In order to do so, we require that an additional KYC (know your customer) procedure is completed before we can proceed with the processing of your transfer.

We kindly ask you to send us a high resolution image double page of your international passport and answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. The purpose of trading on Bitstamp?
3. What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins? If mining, please specify your hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment.
4. What are your future plans and activities planned on our exchange?
5. Do you plan more withdrawals in the future?
6. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.

We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket.

I was asked these questions when I made withdrawals in November/December 2013 from Bitstamp, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. I answered the questions and received my withdrawals as normal.

If that's real what they are doing, Im not going to use them.
I can understand only question 4 and 6.
It's not their business if I mine, I can tell it, but no way to give " hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment."

This is getting absolutely grazy. I was about to move my things to Bitstamp including integrate online shops with them. I have already there verified account, but they can now do whatever they want. I will do my business at other places.

Are they jocking? I don't either have a passport or an invoice for my mining equipment, and THIS IS NOT THEIR BUSINESS.

I'm out also from stamp now, looking for a serious exchanger

[bananas]

I'm out also from stamp now, looking for a serious exchanger

But is there any serious one with good daily volume?

[stefffe]

Cant withdraw bitcoins and I dont know why and they are not responding to tickets? What to do?


 

[Shawshank]

How long between the additional KYC questionnaire and the withdrawal actually being processed?

It took one day for me.

My experience at Bitstamp tells me the following:
1) Everyday, once a day, from Monday to Friday, Bitstamp collects all fiat withdrawals and processes them. So, it is perfectly possible, for example, that you request a withdrawal on Monday at 11:00, and it is not processed until Tuesday 15:00. Fiat withdrawals don't work on weekends.
2) Several bitcoin withdrawals everyday, including weekends.