'Absolutely it was racially motivated' says RBC bank client after police called to investigate transaction
'Absolutely it was racially motivated' says RBC bank client after police called to investigate transaction
An Ottawa woman plans to file a human rights complaint against the Royal Bank of Canada after a routine trip to her branch to pick-up her credit card resulted in what she calls a dehumanizing and racist experience to prove her identity to police.
Barratou Barry, an RBC bank client of 15 years, says on Aug. 18, she went to her regular branch location on Bank Street to make a cash deposit in her account and to pick up her new credit card.
"The first transaction went well. I put money into my account, I gave them my debit card; everything was smooth. To pick up my credit card I needed identification," she says. "I did not have my driver's license handy with me at that time. I had my health card."
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TL;DR: they called the police after noticing the name on her brand new passport didn’t match her other documents.
You make it sound like something completely reasonable due to a mismatch and not just a letter difference.
"The police said your passport had two R's on it, but your bank account and your bank statement, your name had one R," she says. "And remember I just put money into my bank account and that was fine … this was something that was so easily solved by asking me one more question, I even had my old passport."
I'm sure they always call the police for anyone of every race when their documentation is inconsistent and not disproportionately based on skin tone. I imagine they would call for a SWAT team if she had different last names after being married.
“Just a letter difference” in an official ID is reason enough, I think, to those suspicions. It’s not the job of the bank to figure out whether an ID is valid, it is however, their job to report any suspicious transactions under AML laws and to prevent fraudsters with fake IDs from accessing their bona fide customers’ accounts.
Calling the police is an entirely appropriate response in this case. Aside from taking a while to show up, it’s also not clear the police did anything wrong with the customer.
I’m sure they always call the police…
We’re dealing with a sample size of one.
Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. We have a sample size of one and you’re now
I'm sorry dog when the problem is a typo on an otherwise fine passport calling the cops isn't the first course of action. Asking "are you aware your name is misspelled on your passport" seems like a pretty obvious step one. Especially when she still had her old passport with her.
They're a bank dealing with money. Sure put money into an account. Who cares about money going in. But pulling it out you need to identify and if it doesn't match the teller has to confirm identity legally and professionally. Nothing in this story indicates its about race. To me it sounds more racist to throw out accusations of racism at random people doing their job because you fucked up and didn't validate your own ID. When your issued a passport they get you to check the information is correct for this reason. The bank has strict regulatory policies and internal rules all tellers are required to follow.
I wasn't there so I can't say it's racially motivated for sure but what I can say is that passports have much more reliable ways of telling if they're forged than a typo.
Wouldn't a typo invalidate the passport as a form of ID?
Then they should say "we can't accept this because of the discrepancy, do you have another form of ID." Canadian passports have a chip in them, I don't know for sure if the bank would be able to read it but at the very least least its existence along with watermarks should be enough to give someone the benefit of the doubt that they're not a criminal.
It's a legal obligation for the bank to escalate it. You can't just ask them, informing someone you suspect of an unusual transaction is specifically called out in anti-moneylaundering / anti-terrorist financing regulations.
The problem is “otherwise fine” is not a determination bank staff can make. The passport has one glaring issue, but the branch staff aren’t document experts and can’t run identification confirmation checks on government databases. The police can.
Passports have watermarks and aren't easily forged. There is someone at the bank who is trained well enough to know about watermarks.
I would have been severely reprimanded or even fired for calling the police on an error like this. All banks have an AML and KYC reporting guidelines and internal controls. None of them involve the branch employee calling police for document misspellings. It's not the standard action and should never have occured.
Aha, so would you have (a) tipped her off to the issue in potential contravention of AML regs? Or (b) continued to serve her, despite you not being sure she is who she says she is, in potential violation of KYC/privacy?
Well thats' ridiculous. In what world are those the only two options? Number one, two forms of ID are standard banking practices. Obviously if you don't feel comfortable accepting one you are taught to ask for another.
You are also given free discresion to deny processing transactions (so long as you submitted some kind of AML/ security report) to our compliance department. You dont discuss these with clients, you are taught to make up an excuse or be vague and deny the processing. Common practice for bad checks. These cases are always handled by a dedicated AML/ compliance office of the institution.
Unless you are actively being robbed branch employees are not suppose to be calling the police. This is standard across all large banks.
SOURCE: 15 years across a variety of banks in branch/trust/ and estate compliance.
Yeah. Not accepting the mismatched ID or processing the transaction seems reasonable. Unless the client was becoming belligerent and refusing to leave (and return with proper ID) then calling the cops is not
So someone gives you ID with bad info and you just keep accepting different ID until you get one thats ok from them, and don't escalate or file a unusual transaction report? Hope you don't still work for a FI
Use critical thinking. No you don't cycle down a list. You say "hey I think your passport might have an extra letter r in it, you have another credit card, medical card, etc. I can take a look at?"
If anyone with a brain really thinks it's a forged passport they would skip straight to the whole "denying the transaction" part and reporting it through the banks reporting system.
This whole thread is a mind fuck of really dumb opinions. The cops just should not have been called.
You would only ask for other ID if you didn't find a misspelled passport suspicious - which it is.
When I did my first passport ever, I was living in Ottawa. The lady that served me was this super christian lady. She asked me if I was ever baptized and who my godfather was. She put my godfather's name as my middle name. That name never shows up on any other documents and I've been stuck with this middle name ever since.
Oof. I take it this was years ago? That actually sounds like it could be a legitimate human right complaint.
It's okay. I love my godfather. He's a great man and I'm proud to have his name in my passport. Thankfully.