New anti-money laundering policies

[ajnz]

I thought I'd post this here since it may impact other ex-pat Australian amex customers.

I've just had a fun conversation with Amex Australia. To set the scene, I'm a Kiwi who is employed in Australia and is assigned to the Singapore office of my MNC employer. My salary is paid in Australia, and I have a bank account, Amex Australia card, etc. The address on my Amex account is that of my residence in Singapore, since I no longer have a house in Melbourne.

In April I applied for a supplementary card for my mother, who lives in New Zealand. Amex requested additional ID - a certified passport copy - which was supplied to them after some delay due to her needing to renew her passport. After some elapsed months I chased them up today to find out what the story is, and I was told that due to Amex's policy change effective August 26th, in line with the Australian Anti-money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Finance act that they can no longer issue cards to anyone with an overseas address, and for this reason they will not issue my mother a supplementary card (unless I can prove she lives in Australia - which she doesn't).

I've had a quick skim of the legislation involved and while I am not a lawyer, I can't see anything which restricts Amex from doing this - so it's their policy.

I queried whether this impacts me as an existing cardholder, and was told that in terms of card renewals etc it doesn't, but if I were to apply for a new Amex card or change my card type, I would be refused.

It seems like a shortsighted policy that will impact a significant number of expat workers who maintain an Australian Amex account. I'm tempted to write a letter to them to see if I can get this rather boneheaded decision changed as it makes no sense for my particular situation.

I'm now about to ask CBA if they will issue her a card instead - although I'm not holding my breath.

 

[simongr]

The AML legislation gives people lots of opportunity to trip and a lot of it is done on risk assessments. Have they done enough to prove the identity is the question. They may have a policy (agreed annoying for you) that simplifies for their staff the requirements (this way they don't need to train people to validate NZ or other addresses).

It is a horrible piece of legislation - similar to the LAG rules at the airports and seems to simply be there to be seen to be there...

 

[Tooner]

It is a horrible piece of legislation - similar to the LAG rules at the airports and seems to simply be there to be seen to be there...

and is designed to trump what had previously been seen the most draconian overseas legislation to establish our credentials. Lots of unintended consequences and vague language. I'm not surprised Amex have made the call they have to avoid a visit from Austrac. Good luck finding the answers in the legislation.

 

[ajnz]

Agreed that it is likely Amex's simple response to this legislation to make it as easy (and consistent) for themselves as possible, but it does seem that they are making it hard for their customers. I doubt I'm particularly unique in my situation -- as I put it to them, what if I needed to change my card type/increase my credit limit? What if I got married and wanted to add my wife to the account? These are suddenly not possible.

Simon - Amex Australia runs the NZ operations as well, so they would validate NZers regularly. Incidentally my mother held an Amex NZ card for years so it wouldn't be hard to authenticate she and I are both who we say we are.

Point taken regarding their policy - but it's still dumb . Yay for silly legislation making life harder for what is probably little value.

 

[winfred]

Ii got into troble a few years ago when I over paid my Amex Plat Credit Card to pay for a large purchase. My card was suspended after the deposit (and I only find out when trying to pay for that big purchase) and was told it will be suspended for a month pending due to their anti-money laundering policy.

I spent 4 hours on the phone talking to 4 different person explaining the whole story 4 times and they said it was my fault to get my account into +ve (by $5k).

I lodged a formal complaint by letter and was compensated with 10k points.

If there is another card that gives me 1.5 points per $ spent, I will ripped up my Amex.

 

[thegurio]

If you would like some advice from someone who works in the bank, MrsGurio works for them and deals in that sort of stuff... PM me for details.

BTW... She says its possible so thats a good start!