Remember in March 2022 when I searched my (then) Twitter profile picture against TinEye and found 0 matches, indicating that I may be a fraudster because TinEye didn’t have a history on me?
Well, I found additional evidence of my supposed shady nature.
For purposes of this discussion, I will refer to the two banks in question as the “red” bank and the “blue” bank. (No political implications here.) I’ve previously referred to the blue bank as Wildebeest Bank, but today I’m sticking to the color scheme idea.
Both banks use Zelle to support instant transactions between member institutions, and I have Zelle-enabled accounts with both banks. For the record:
- I frequently perform immediate Zelle transfers from the blue bank to the red bank.
- On Wednesday, I successfully performed an immediate Zelle transfer from the red bank to the blue bank.
So on Thursday, I thought nothing of sending a second Zelle transfer from the red bank to the blue bank.
Until the red bank emailed me.
“The recipient bank [the blue bank] has placed this transfer on hold so they can conduct further review. Upon completion of the review, they will either complete your transfer or [the red bank] will contact you with more details. No further action is required from you at this time.”
Now why would a bank conduct further review? Three possible reasons.
- The recipient isn’t enrolled in Zelle. Not a problem here.
- The recipient bank is conducting a technical check. This shouldn’t be a problem here, since both Zelle accounts have been successfully used before.
- The recipient bank is conducting a fraud check. This, perhaps an anti-money laundering investigation, seems the most likely scenario, especially since this was launched one day after another transfer. Even though the second transfer is SMALLER than the first transfer, perhaps the one-day timeframe looks like someone is trying to drain the red bank account.
So this happened Thursday, and as of Saturday (two calendar days and one business day later) I hadn’t heard a thing.
So I called the blue bank, reached a helpful representative, and waited for her to research the issue. I heard her mutter over the phone:
“Accept without posting”
Then, a minute later:
“What does THAT mean?”
While I waited for her to officially talk to me again, I performed some online research and confirmed that “accept without posting” is another way of saying that the transaction is under review. Here’s what the Cleveland Federal Reserve says about FedNow, one bank transfer method:
“[T]he FedNow Service sends the payment information to the receiver’s financial institution and asks that bank to confirm that it intends to accept the payment message. It can accept, or reject, or accept without posting, which means some of the pre-checks of the transaction are pending or delayed.”
Then when the blue bank representative did speak to me, things got even more confusing as she said that there were notes from Monday involving “the green bank” that wasn’t even involved in the transaction. Wisconsin Travel Federation?
The representative didn’t have access to the group that put my Zelle transfer on hold, so for now I wait.
Technically it’s only been one business day.
Bredemarket 