First,this should have been written to Gideon Muriuki,unless he is an Skerian. Two,you don't seem to be aware of banking post 9-11. If you withdraw 20K each month,a withdrawal of 100K will raise alarms (it is also for your the protection of your own money). Three,any bank worth it's name will do the same,so leaving will not resolve the problem. I think you just got a little drunk with an 'unusual' amount in your account.

Same case with coop naks. They even claimed I was forging the signature. 1 long hr later i got my cash n offered them a divorce. Slow stupid kenyans!

Dudu mbaya!

There is no bank that will not ask you questions if the amounts involved are staggering. At my bank,a reputable one,which may be you will be moving to,I bought a bankers cheque. I found out that what I wanted to do with the cheque was taking a bit longer than I had expeceted. So I went to redeposit the cheque. Guess what? I was asked to write a composition on why I was taking the cheque back. Remember it was a cheque drawn from my account and I was taking it back to the same account. And I was payig 600 ksh both ways for the transactions!. Any way to cut the story short I was so irriated I must have spewed venom on the guy handling my case. All banks are the same. stay where you are...

By the way,Kenyan banks are required to retain supporting documentation for transfers above USD 10K.

I blame the management of Kenyan banks for not educating their staff on:

1. Basic concepts of risk management - How do you start interrogating and calling back a cheque deposit after it has cleared? What are you trying to prevent? The horse has already bolted. The bank has no right to prevent a client from accessing funds in his account unless authorised by the gava (e.g. a KRA agency notice,CBK directive etc) or a court. If the transaction seemed irregular,it should have been noted and reported to the CBK at the time of deposit.

2. The role of banks in AML - In many countries with a clearly defined AML policy (and Kenya I think is adopting a similar approach though the CBK seems shy to overtly say so),banks are only required to report (daily or as they occur) suspicious transactions to the regulator. It is upto the regulator to order the bank to block an account. The reporting is usually done discreetly and the clients are not expected to know.

Banks are not explicitly mandated to block the transaction. One reason for this is that suspicion is sometimes just a gut feeling. If a bank unilaterally blocks a transaction and it turns out the client was clean,you can be sure that the CBK will not compensate the bank for any interest claims that the client may make. Reporting means the fight will effectively be between CBK and the client.

3. Customer Service - Common-sense customer service dicates that you approach the client with an 'innocent until proven guilty' disposition and not the other way round. In any case,it will not make the facts any truer (sp) if you use a hostile approach. The customer service staff need to understand that AML guidelines do not make them the police. Their role ends at realistic due diligence and regulatory reporting and does not include arresting and investigating criminals. They must learn to calm down and engage the customer in a rational discussion. Mosts people wouldn't mind as long as the customer service persons respectfully made them understand why.

I have an account with KCB and was once asked a couple of similar questions for a cheque deposit. I did not have a problem with the questions per se because I understood why. My problem was a)the attitude and b)why they were doing it after the cheque cleared.

@Magigi - Writing a composition is unacceptable.

Coiler,

You should flee from that bank like a nonsense!(forgive my french) Basically your incidence tells you that the bank is highly prone to fraud that is why their untrained staff are excited at all times. what you should know is that there is a lot of fraud related to cloning of sacco cheques and coop bank being the official sacco bank,it has always been a victim. With a huge work load coop bank is unable to confirm or call back this cheques during the clearing or better still they are usually out witted at that clearing stage by the fraudsters hence the silly questions being asked by the colins or kevin fella. Dont be surprised to find that colins or kevin fella has no idea of any AML policy. In summary this bank has been heavily hit by fraud than any other bank and their staff are always on the look out. Try dressing sharply and enter this bank in the morning. you will be treated in a very funny way. I have spent over 5years in fraud prevention and detection. I should know.

If its not a winner........Then Its a killer!

I have almost committed homicide a number of times at Co-op. One day I present a couple of cheques and the teller flatly refuses to bank them. Reason? They only have two names! "Your account has three names so all the cheques you bank with us must have three names!!" Solution: Go back to the person who made the cheques and tell them to add the third name!!! I'm totally incensed imagining the whole process and time it will take and I ask her "What if I take the cheques, walk out of the bank, add the third name and come back??". She goes like "You could do that and I wouldn't know but don't because I'll check the handwriting bla bla bla...". I had to threaten her and demand to see the manager etc. before she accepted to bank my cheques!!! My own sweat! And here I was begging them to take my money!! Bure kabisa!

I bank with other banks too and they have never given me that third name crap - that's what clearing is all about - talk to the issuer of the cheque - through his bank - in the background. You can guess where my cheques end up nowadays!

I think you guys are blowing issues out of proportion here and sharing personal names and titles here isnt the way to go about it.Why dont you just move to the better option?We have over 30banks in Kenya.