A man who says he’s banked with JPMorgan Chase for 18 years has gone viral after accusing the bank of terminating his account with zero warning or explanation.
A post on the social site Reddit caught fire as the user reported his Chase cards abruptly stopped working, with his online banking access simultaneously cut off.
The man says representatives at the bank promised he’d receive a letter with more details on why his account was closed, but that never happened. Instead, he was left in the dark and banned for life.
“Confirmed, Chase closed everything down. No warning, no explanation. I had to take all my funds out yesterday and they recommended me to grab all my things in my safety deposit box. I’m also banned from conducting business with Chase.
Nothing in my credit or banking history has been different than the normal transactions I’ve been doing for years. Has this happened to anyone before? I feel like this is a ‘it’s you, not me, please delete my contact info from your phone. Don’t reach out.'”
Chase has not responded to the user’s post, which was published on the r/Chase subreddit.
Banks can terminate accounts at their discretion and have increasingly closed accounts due to concerns of suspicious behavior.
When a financial institution is concerned about a given account’s activity, it is required to submit a Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to the government.
According to the Banking Policy Institute, just 4% of SARs submitted by banks to law enforcement result in a follow-up, and a small fraction of the follow-ups result in arrests and convictions.
Back in 2014, the number of SARs submitted by banks stood at about 830,000.
That number has significantly increased in recent years, with about 1.4 million SARs reported in 2021.
This year, JPMorgan Chase has also been accused of systemically discriminating against its customers.
Back in May, Republican attorneys general in 19 states accused JPMorgan of “persistently” discriminating against its own clients and closing bank accounts without warning based on religious and political biases.
Don't Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inboxGenerated Image: Midjourney