$10,000 wire transfer disappears after bank puts it in wrong account
CBC
It's advertised as a safe and reliable way to send money, but an Ontario couple says the $10,000 wire transfer they sent their adult son was deposited into a stranger's account, then disappeared.
Barbara and Robert Behan wanted to help their son and his young family finish the basement in their home, so they sent the cash as a Christmas gift.
The transfer was sent from the couple's TD Bank account in Penetanguishene, Ont., on Dec. 21, to a CIBC branch in Calgary where their son has been banking for decades. But the money never showed up in his account.
Weeks later, CIBC told the Behans the money was gone — deposited into someone else's account the day it was sent — and that the account holder had withdrawn all $10,000 the next day, then shut the account down.
"It's inconceivable. Apparently this person had the exact same account number as our son," Barbara said.
"But they [CIBC] never matched the name of the account number to our son's name. They just put it into the wrong person's account. Nobody checked it."
CIBC says clients can have identical account numbers. It's another set of numbers — the five-digit transit numbers that identify a specific branch — that differentiates between accounts.
All of this could have been prevented if banks had a better system in place to make sure wire transfers end up in the right place, says banking expert Werner Antweiler.
"It really points to the [issues] with the current system," said Antweiler, an associate professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
"A simple mistake can get compounded very quickly because once the money has left an account, it is not easy, or it's often impossible, to retrieve it … so that's really imperative to get the transfer information right."
After two months of battling the banks, CIBC's ombudsman decided the bank was not at fault but offered the couple half of their money back as a goodwill gesture.
The bank returned the entire amount after Go Public contacted it.
WATCH | Wire transfer goes missing:
Until then, the Behans say they spent "many sleepless nights" wondering if they'd ever see their money again.