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银行存入错误账户后 10,000 美元电汇消失
CIBC表示表格上的错误信息导致了错误
罗莎·马尔基泰利 · CBC 新闻 · 2022 年 4 月 4 日
罗伯特·贝汉 (Robert Behan) 和芭芭拉·贝汉 (Barbara Behan) 与道明银行 (TD Bank) 和 CIBC 进行了几个月的斗争，试图弄清楚他们汇给儿子的 10,000 美元是如何进入陌生人的账户的。
它被宣传为一种安全可靠的汇款方式，但安大略省的一对夫妇表示，他们给成年儿子汇出的 10,000 美元电汇被存入一个陌生人的账户，然后就消失了。
芭芭拉·贝汉 (Barbara Behan) 和罗伯特·贝汉 (Robert Behan) 想帮助他们的儿子和他的年轻家庭完成家中的地下室，因此他们寄出了现金作为圣诞礼物。
这笔转账于 12 月 21 日从这对夫妇位于安省 Penetanguishene 的 TD 银行账户转至 CIBC 位于卡尔加里的一家分行，他们的儿子在那里经营银行业务数十年。 但这笔钱从未出现在他的账户上。
几周后，CIBC 告诉 Behan 夫妇，钱不见了——在汇款当天就存入了别人的账户——账户持有人第二天就提取了全部 10,000 美元，然后关闭了账户。
“这太不可思议了。显然这个人的账号和我们儿子的账号一模一样，”芭芭拉说。
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“但他们 [CIBC] 从未将帐号的名称与我们儿子的名字相匹配。他们只是将其存入了错误的人的帐户。没有人检查。”
CIBC 表示，客户可以拥有相同的账号。 这是另一组号码——识别特定分行的五位数交通号码——用来区分账户。
贝汉夫妇在试图收回资金的两个月里积累了一些文件。 （基思·伯吉斯/CBC）
银行专家沃纳·安特韦勒表示，如果银行有更好的系统来确保电汇最终到达正确的地方，所有这一切都可以避免。
“这确实指出了当前体系的[问题]，”不列颠哥伦比亚大学尚德商学院副教授安特韦勒说。
“一个简单的错误可能很快就会变得复杂，因为一旦资金离开账户，就很难或者通常不可能取回它......所以确保正确的转账信息确实非常重要。”
经过两个月与银行的斗争后，加拿大帝国商业银行的监察员认定银行没有过错，但向这对夫妇退还了一半的钱，以示善意。
Go Public 联系银行后，银行退回了全部金额。
观看 | 电汇丢失：
银行将电汇存入错误账户后，夫妇损失了 1 万美元 | 上市
安大略省的一对夫妇表示，他们的 10,000 美元电汇存入了错误的账户，然后就消失了。 该案例凸显了加拿大电汇系统的一个关键问题——缺乏内置错误检测。
“许多个不眠之夜”
贝汉夫妇说，在那之前，他们度过了“许多个不眠之夜”，想知道是否还能再次看到自己的钱。
“我一直很担心。我对所有银行经理和我们接触过的每个人说，‘如果这是你的 10,000 美元，你会如此悠闲地对待它吗？’ 这是 10,000 美元。这不是 1.50 美元。这是辛苦赚来的钱，”芭芭拉说。 这对夫妇表示，他们在两家银行之间来来回回，但双方都没有承担责任。
道明银行告诉这对夫妇，资金丢失是加拿大帝国商业银行的错——因为在道明银行成功转账后，该银行将这笔钱转入了别人的账户。
CIBC 的监察员将责任归咎于 Behan 夫妇，并告诉他们，他们不应该提供儿子卡尔加里分行的交通号码，而应该向道明银行提供安省伯灵顿的交通号码，也就是他几十年前首次开设账户的地点。
监察员还表示，该银行正试图“通过法律诉讼”从其他账户持有人那里收回资金。
CIBC 发言人 Trish Tervit 在给 Go Public 的电子邮件中写道：“我们鼓励客户在付款时仔细检查这些信息，以确保资金交付给预定的收款人。”
这对夫妇表示，任何问题都应该被标记出来并退还钱。
“事情根本不应该达到这样的地步，”芭芭拉说。
道明银行告诉这对夫妇，资金丢失是加拿大帝国商业银行的错——因为在道明银行成功转账后，该银行将这笔钱转入了别人的账户。 （科林·霍尔/CBC）
容易出错
Antweiler 表示，此类错误是加拿大有缺陷的电汇系统直接造成的。该系统名为 Lynx，尽管去年 9 月才推出，但很容易出错。 大多数在加拿大运营的银行（包括 CIBC）都使用 Lynx，但也有少数例外。
他说：“填写表格时会出现大量错误，而且最轻微的错误都可能导致人们亏钱，而且往往是严重亏钱。”
Lynx 仅在加拿大使用。 它由非营利性加拿大支付机构拥有和运营，该机构由特许银行和加拿大银行等组织管辖。 它负责几乎所有用于付款或以其他方式汇款的系统（包括借记卡、支票和电汇，但不包括信用卡）。
据加拿大支付局称，2021 年金融机构之间处理了超过 1,100 万笔交易，价值 126 万亿美元，其中包括国际支付。
Lynx 不要求银行将账号与账户持有人的姓名进行匹配——Antweiler 表示大多数银行都不会这样做——这增加了发生像 Behans 那样的错误的可能性。
CIBC 否认自己有过错，但最终退还了 Behan 夫妇的 10,000 美元。 （科林·霍尔/CBC）
“我们需要让加拿大人更容易地在银行之间转账……一个不易出错的系统，如果几个字符错误，钱最终会流到错误的地方，”他说。
据加拿大支付局网站称，Lynx 取代了已经存在 20 多年的大额转账系统 (LVTS)。 它将 Lynx 称为“支付创新的另一个里程碑”。
Antweiler 指出，有一个解决方案，并指出其他使用国际银行帐号 (IBAN) 系统的国家。
与 Lynx（使用三位数的银行代码、五位数的运输代码和帐号）不同，IBAN 使用冗长的字母数字代码，允许其内置错误检测来标记问题，几乎不留下人为错误的空间。
“这意味着如果出现任何错误，例如数字调换或数字丢失，[转账]将无法进行，”安特韦勒说。
截至一月份，已有 79 个国家/地区在使用 IBAN 系统，其中包括欧盟、中东、北非和加勒比地区的国家。
银行业专家维尔纳·安特韦勒 (Werner Antweiler) 表示，尽管加拿大名为 Lynx 的电汇系统推出还不到一年，但仍存在缺陷。 （不列颠哥伦比亚大学）
Go Public 向加拿大五家主要银行、加拿大金融局和加拿大支付局询问了电汇错误的统计数据，但没有一家提供这些信息。
贝汉夫妇表示，需要一个更安全、更可靠的系统。
“我们发现，在这段时间里，我们的银行系统、我们的银行之间不互相通信。他们不一起工作。他们没有相同的电汇表格。他们不来回沟通，”罗伯特说。
小企业主被骗，然后被银行遗弃，损失 2.3 万美元
克服困难：为什么客户在与银行的斗争中经常失败
存款消失：当银行损失你的钱时会发生什么
“我们要说的是，[银行]将来如何纠正这种情况，以免这种情况发生在其他人身上？”
Go Public 向 Payments Canada 询问了 Lynx 的问题以及是否考虑更改为 IBAN 系统，但它没有回答这些问题。
$10,000 wire transfer disappears after bank puts it in wrong account
CIBC says wrong information on form led to the error
Rosa Marchitelli · CBC News ·
Robert and Barbara Behan battled both TD Bank and CIBC for months, trying to figure out how $10,000 they wired to their son ended up in a stranger's account. (Keith Burgess/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.
- Got a story? Email Rosa and the Go Public team
"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.
Some of the paperwork the Behans accumulated during the two months they were trying to get their money back. (Keith Burgess/CBC)
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:
Couple loses $10K wire transfer after bank deposits it in wrong account | Go Public
'Many sleepless nights'
Until then, the Behans say they spent "many sleepless nights" wondering if they'd ever see their money again.
"I worried constantly. I said to all the bank managers and everybody we've been in touch with, 'If this was your $10,000, would you be so laid-back about it?' It's $10,000. It's not a $1.50. It's hard-earned money," Barbara said. The couple says they were bounced back and forth between the two banks, with neither taking responsibility.
TD told the couple the missing funds were CIBC's fault — because it put the money into someone else's account after TD had successfully transferred it.
CIBC's ombudsman blamed the Behans, telling them that, instead of providing the transit number for their son's Calgary branch, they should have given TD the one for the Burlington, Ont., location where he first opened his account decades ago.
The ombudsman also said the bank is attempting to recoup the money from the other account holder, "through legal action."
"We encourage clients to double-check this information when sending payments to ensure the funds are delivered to the intended recipient," wrote CIBC spokesperson Trish Tervit in an email to Go Public.
The couple says any problem should have been flagged and the money returned.
"It never should have reached the point that it did," Barbara said.
TD told the couple the missing funds were CIBC's fault — because it put the money into someone else's account after TD had successfully transferred it. (Colin Hall/CBC)
Prone to errors
Such errors are a direct result of Canada's flawed wire transfer system, says Antweiler — a system, called Lynx, that's prone to mistakes even though it was launched just last September. The majority of banks operating in Canada use Lynx, including CIBC, with a few exceptions.
"There are a great number of errors that happen when forms are filled out [and] the slightest error can lead to these kinds of situations where people are out of pocket, often quite deeply out of pocket," he said.
Lynx is only used in Canada. It's owned and operated by the non-profit Payments Canada, which is governed by organizations including the chartered banks and the Bank of Canada. It's in charge of almost all the systems (including debit, cheques and wire transfers — but not credit cards) used to make payments or otherwise send money.
More than 11 million transactions valued at $126 trillion were processed between financial institutions in 2021, including international payments, according to Payments Canada.
Lynx doesn't require banks to match the account number with the name of the account holder — and Antweiler says most banks don't — which increases the chance of errors like what happened to the Behans.
CIBC denied it was at fault, but eventually returned the Behans’ $10,000. (Colin Hall/CBC)
"We need to allow Canadians to transfer money more easily from bank to bank … a system that is not as error-prone, where if a few characters are wrong, the money ends up in the wrong place," he said.
Lynx replaced the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) that had been in place for more than 20 years, according to the Payments Canada website. It calls Lynx "another milestone in payments innovation."
There is a solution, says Antweiler, pointing to other countries that use the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) system.
Unlike Lynx — which uses a three-digit bank code, a five-digit transit code and the account number — IBAN uses a lengthy alphanumeric code that allows its built-in error detection to flag problems, leaving little room for human error.
"That means if there's any error, like a number transposed or digit missing, [the transfer] would not work," Antweiler said.
As of January, 79 countries were using the IBAN system, including countries in the EU, Middle East, North Africa and the Caribbean.
Banking expert Werner Antweiler says, despite being less than a year old, Canada's wire transfer system called Lynx is flawed. (University of British Columbia)
Go Public asked five of Canada's major banks, Finance Canada and Payments Canada for statistics on wire transfer errors, but none made the information available.
The Behans say a safer, more reliable system is needed.
"We discovered during this time that our banking system, our banks, do not talk to each other. They do not work together. They don't have the same wire transfer forms. They don't communicate back and forth," Robert said.
"The thing we are saying is, how are [the banks] going to correct it in the future so it doesn't happen to anybody else?"
Go Public asked Payments Canada about the problems with Lynx and if it's considering changing to the IBAN system, but it didn't answer the questions.
