Revolut faces lawsuit in Romania over blocked account
Digital bank, Revolut, is facing a lawsuit after blocking a customer’s account in Romania.
Florin Hrituliac, a Revolut personal account customer in Romania, tried to transfer RON 20,000 ($4,832.68) from his company’s bank account to his Revolut account on 9 September 2020, but was unable to access these funds. Hrituliac tells FinTech Futures that his account was blocked for five days “without any clarifications from their chat agents”. The fintech unblocked the customer’s account on 15 September.
Revolut is facing a lawsuit after blocking a customer’s account in Romania.
Revolut claims that the customer’s account was actually “locked” on 21 May 2020. A spokesperson at the company tells FinTech Futures that the account was rarely used and undergoing a review, hence the account being locked. They explain that the customer was unable to access these funds “due to a mistake on our end where [the] review wasn’t completed on time,” according to the spokesperson. Revolut has since apologised to Hrituliac for the delay.
Hrituliac, a Revolut customer since April 2019, notes that he was unaware of his account’s blocking as “it appeared active and there was no reason provided”. Revolut believes that the customer should have received a notification, as all it requires is a verification on some occasions. “Because of the soft block, it should be immediately flagged until documents are provided or the review is completed,” says the Revolut spokesperson. He adds that the internal review can take either minutes or hours depending on the case. But the firm did not finish the review until they became aware of Hrituliac’s account issues on 10 September.
Although Hrituliac was aware of Revolut making the statement about blocking his account in May to national media outlets, he tells FinTech Futures, that he “was not aware of this at the time of filing the lawsuit”. This was because Hrituliac made payments without any issue in between.
“If Revolut blocked the account since May this means that it was blocked for five months – still no notification received concerning this,” he says. “I had full confidence in transferring the amount of RON 20,000 to my Revolut account; should I have been informed it was blocked, I would sort out the issue first, then transfer the money.”
Hrituliac alleges that this piece of information went unaddressed in chat discussions with the first agent. “She pointed that this transfer was only flagged for further verification, not that the account is/was blocked.”
Initially, Hrituliac believed that his account was blocked for five days, “without any clarification from their chat agents”. Due to Revolut’s lack of response, Hrituliac promptly filed a lawsuit against the fintech in Romanian courts on 11 September, registered in Brasov court under the number 17723/197/2020.
He highlights that the funds appeared as pending/blocked on 10 September at 00:34 am. “I contacted an agent via chat at 8 am and they unblocked the amount on 15 September after several newspapers and websites posted articles regarding court action against Revolut,” he says.
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Hrituliac then sent his query to various national media outlets. This led Revolut Romania to publicly declare that it was making “extra efforts in order to unblock the amount because of the court action”.
“This is unfair to similar customers who were not able to go to court,” says Hrituliac. He finds it “disappointing that they only paid attention to this issue only after public information about court action have been made popular by some websites and newspapers”.
The Financial Times reported on Revolut’s surge in complaints due to its freezing or closing of accounts on 17 September. The report highlights data from Resolver, the online complaints service, that received 3,911 complaints about Revolut so far this year, as compared to its 2,487 for the whole of 2019. Of this year’s complaints, 332 were about problems accessing funds, 79 were transfer errors and 176 were multiple complaints involving more than one issue.
“Basically, they do not care about our money,” says Hrituliac.
In the FT’s report, UK Revolut account user, Richard Walker, had his account suspended after a £150,000 transfer from a friend.
“As a lawyer and now a full-time parent, Walker was aware that banks and electronic banking apps are required by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to monitor accounts for money laundering and fraudulent activity,” notes the FT. “A large sum being paid in from a foreign account looked suspicious. He decided to contact his bank to explain.”
“But Revolut did not have a telephone number. Instead it had an in-app chat facility that failed to work. A conversation would be started but not finished. A member of the Revolut team left the chat without closing it. Walker found it impossible to make progress on finding his money or receiving a full explanation.”
Hrituliac also faced a comparable situation with chat agents. “After so many attempts to get a piece of information from Revolut agents (documented in the print screens), and no reply from their side, I felt mistreated,” he says. “Upon a search on Google I have realised such bad things happen on a regular basis with Revolut, and affected customers just do not have any means to contact the company, other than the chat window in the Revolut app,” he adds.
“Basically, they do not care about our money. This is when I decided to file a lawsuit against Revolut in my local court.”
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Hrituliac’s account was finally unblocked “without any documents, just based on my explanations,” he adds. “Which again shows many flaws in their anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.”
Revolut claims that the freezing of accounts “could be due to either a breach of our terms and conditions or as part of our security checks which continuously monitor to keep our customers safe. This measure is a regulatory requirement.”
However, Yaron Hazan, vice-president of regulatory affairs at ThetaRay, believes that it may be down to Revolut’s lack of adequate de-risking procedures. “Its ongoing monitoring activities are not in line with the standards of large and commercial banks,” says Hazan. He finds that new digital banks face the conundrum of suspending accounts when met with suspicious activity; however, conventional procedure dictates that they should be going through appropriate AML protocols, flagging these instances to regulators before suspending account activity.
“Only a few cases of regulatory requirements specifically state anything about freezing accounts, freezing money and not providing services, and those are mainly about sanctions,” says Hazan. Otherwise, it is down to the bank to simply manage the risk.
The fintech’s new money laundering officer will have to tackle this case and more.
Michael Cumming-Bruce, senior associate at law firm, Cooke Young, Keidan, thinks the problems come from the firm’s rapid expansion. “Unfortunately, adolescent growing pains are often a part of life for companies, as for people, and it may be that Revolut are now learning the hard way why established banks spend so much time and money on ensuring regulatory compliance in the course of carrying out their business activities.” Hrituliac points to Revolut’s recent job posting for a money laundering reposting officer in Bucharest.
Cummings-Bruce believes the future still seems bright for Revolut, “who despite these awkward customer-facing issues and the pandemic have managed to grow their customer base to over 12 million individuals (which may also help explain these recent difficulties)”.
The fintech’s new money laundering officer will have to tackle this case and more, as Hrituliac’s situation has garnered a lot of interest since his post about it in a Revolut Romania group on Facebook. “Immediately, I have been contacted by messenger by other customers interested in filing a class lawsuit against Revolut in Romania – I redirected them to my lawyer.”
See also: Revolut’s losses treble to £104.7m after year of rapid growth
I had the same issue with them. Since then i closed the account. Dont bank with them anymore.
My Revolut account was blocked yesterday while making a small transfer to a regular customer.
When I tried to check . Message reads: please be patient with us,we are reviewing your documents.
Documents have been sent to them over two months ago. Just a copy of a rental contract. Should this take That Long??
Same here. Useful for some FX but overall too risky and too much of a potential headache to deal with. Closed revolut and remained with the real banks I work with.
Revolut blocked my account on Monday the 26th of October 2020. After I had friends of mine contributing to my treatment on Friday the 23rd October £ 8 256. I made £2000 to my regular bank on Sat 24th since then £ 6 256 has been locked and they asked a bank statement of one of my friends, which was supplied by the 28th , after that revolut closed any communication or correspondence with me and no explanation was provided. I am still without as I was not the person in question, why was my account locked? The bot was disabled too. I filled in 2 complaint forms but no agent has come back to explain
Revolut may be having SOP but their protocol of excluding the customer whilst they are conducting their investigations is also violating the mental health state of customers but putting them under duress
i am going through same issue with my account as it was locked on the 24/10/2020.My wife transferred 150GBP into my account and since i have given her bank statement as requested without further contact with Revolut. i wonder what type f services they provide without customer service number and they are meant to be keeping people’s money.
Its been 2weeks now and i got a message saying i have 30days to withdraw my funds or face further restrictions without giving access to my account. It makes me wonder what games they are playing as i will like to file suit against them for treating customers like animals.
Anyone willing to go through legal process should comment
My account is been blocked 2 weeks ago. After a long conversation with a agent , where I give them all the documents asked, they don’t answer any more and my money are still in processing. The transfer was make from my own account, the same one that I used since I have this card. I recommend this revolut to all my friends . Is there any phone number ? Any advice?
They block my account on 24th of October and I can’t access to get my money no one answers in app I don’t really understand what’s going on with this people they said to me in 15 days 24 days I’m still talking bullshit
If so many people have same issue why don’t we get together and file a lawsuit agains them? Might have a different impact if is coming for a large group of people. Should’t we ask for finanacial compensation for the inconveniences created ?
I am having the same issue. My account was blocked on Monday without notification. I had just received 4 months back payments of benefits. I too start a conversation via the app and half way through they disappear. This is my only bank account. I have no other funds. My rent is due and if not paid I will be evicted and I haven’t had food since Tuesday. I’ve said all this via the app but they have no compassion. I have complained to fraud UK and FCA
They locked my account with no notice and I can’t reach anyone in the support app to have my funds transferred to another account. Please don’t trust any of your hard earn money with these pricks.
I announced them that my card was used in a fraudulent transaction. I managed to revert the transaction and terminated the exposed card. Next day, I wake up and transaction appears Complete! with the terminated card! I’m waiting on the support, but if does not get solved, I’m going to terminate Revolut. And will look where to make an external complaint against them.
I am also in similar situation. Blocked by no reason.. they requested documents, we provided everything.. they requested again, but last ones are still ‘awaiting review’. We are not even able to submit something.. or to see what we need to deliver more. They are not answering on Chat.. not answering on my FB comments (but they are answering some of other comments in the meantime).
I am preparing a lawsuit in London. If somebody is interested to join to it, contact me on goran.skular at slsolucije.hr with subject “REVOLUT LAWSUIT”
Kind regards,
Goran
I’ve been using Revolut for over a year now, with no issues. When I transferred some funds (completely legal), my account was locked, since I had to prove the source of income. I instantly sent them all documents required, but they kept asking for more and more. After two months (!!!) they just stopped replying in the in-app chat. I told them that my only wish is to close my account and they still ignored me. It is not only that they are unorganised and not trustworthy, but it raises also legal issues when a bank doesn’t provide you with assistance to close your account.
I am open to filing a group lawsuit with all of you, because it seems to be the only way to give us some attention.
Absolute disgrace of a company .Blocking genuine clients accounts with no explanation or regard for their mental health.The sooner the go bust the better.A very unethical company.
Revolut is a fraud bank !!!! They act illegal blocking accounts with no reason or keep us in stand by .
Revolut stole $25,400.16 from me. Total scammers. Revolut is a 100% TOTAL FRAUD!!!
My account has been blocked for more than 3 month and they don’t reply. Don’t use this company
Just had mine blocked, I gave them as much information as I could. Bank statement, copies of invoices that matched the deposits on my statements. A certificate of incorporation of a limited company plus some other documents.
Account is blocked/restricted and they won’t give me an explanation.
I have send all the necessary documents to verify my source of funds, from 8 December 2020,and till now nobody check them… But today 5 February of 2021 you locked up my account.
First check my documents,if everything is OK….
And if not, inform me what else document you need.
It is not logical to LOCK my account without checking my documents first
I am from Greece
Every day that is passing creates me a big economy damage
I’ve been waiting for Revolut to review the documents they asked me for at the start of October. Its now 10th Feb. They have £100k of my money locked up and won’t allow me to make a transfer to anyone (including myself). Live chats remain ‘open’ and unanswered. Initially they responded to my complaint to say they agreed it had been an unreasonable amount of time and they would prioritise it – that was 15 weeks ago. Now they simply ignore my emails and live chats. I’m waiting on the UK Financial Ombudsman to take up the case.
I have the funds in my revolut business account frozen for weeks now. Despite this revolut still charge me fees. What is the best way to complain to an EU government body about this. No way this can be legal.
revolut is the worst tentative bank – russian people are thieves / somebody must destroy them! kill the revolut!
My account too has been locked, while they review my sources of income. £30k – almost all my money, including my entire wedding fund – is now inaccessible to me. Like others, I cannot reach them via chat as they leave the last chat open so I can’t start a new one.
I have emailed their complaints address, and if I don’t get a reply I’ll go to the Ombudsman and/or start legal proceedings. However I may run out of savings before I get my money back from them and I face homelessness with a new baby!