I recently tried to send about USD 2k from my HSBC HK account to my wife's account in Indo (Ubud branch) to cover our holiday and some small property related expenses. In the past, these wire transactions (between the same two accounts at the same two banks) cleared in the same day but this one hadn't cleared in a week. Of course I blamed the Indo bank, thinking they were up to some tricks. Wrong! As it turns out, HSBC NY, (let's be honest, the US gov/NSA), held up the transaction and wanted to know what was the meaning of the word UBUD in my transaction reference.... I'm sh*tting you not... Here's the exact query:
/Quote/
The following information is required and must be received within 10
business days or funds will be rejected, blocked or returned. Please provide the
following information: meaning of UBUD in field of payment details. If
vessel,please provide owner, IMO number, port of origin, port of destination,
dates of voyage, ports visited during voyage and detailed purpose of the payment.
/Unquote/
The issue is hopefully going to be resolved but it was inconvenient not to have the funds when required. I write this as a heads up to anyone doing transactions in USD. Big brother is indeed watching and he wants to know everything, even for small money transactions. You cannot necessarily count on getting your funds transferred on a timely basis as and when you require them. As a non-American, I find this whole business totally offensive and will in due course convert all of my USD deposits into other currencies. Good grief!
/Quote/
The following information is required and must be received within 10
business days or funds will be rejected, blocked or returned. Please provide the
following information: meaning of UBUD in field of payment details. If
vessel,please provide owner, IMO number, port of origin, port of destination,
dates of voyage, ports visited during voyage and detailed purpose of the payment.
/Unquote/
The issue is hopefully going to be resolved but it was inconvenient not to have the funds when required. I write this as a heads up to anyone doing transactions in USD. Big brother is indeed watching and he wants to know everything, even for small money transactions. You cannot necessarily count on getting your funds transferred on a timely basis as and when you require them. As a non-American, I find this whole business totally offensive and will in due course convert all of my USD deposits into other currencies. Good grief!
