PEOPLES TRUST CLOSED MY ACCOUNT | Peoples Trust | Discussion forum

sf11 said

yes but I don't have an address listed to those documents , they want a drivers license or carecard with a residential address which I don't have.

There must be something within the federal regulatory environment, e.g. FINTRAC or similar, that is 'requiriing' financial institutions to require physical addresses of their customers. Many, many people nowdays can use P.O. Boxes with Digital Post et al and a mail forwarding address to 'hide' their out-of-country physical presence. What better way to launder money?

Unfortunately, that hoops resident Canadians who only have PO Boxes for mailing addresses. Relatives of mine ran into that same issue with their financial institution accounts such as online banks and discount brokerages even though their mailing addresses are indeed PO Boxes in a small Alberta town. The only way they could satisfy these institutions was to give them a physical address on the first line of their address and then the P.O Box below it... such as

Mr. John Smith
240 Anywhere St
P.O Box 999
Small town, AB
X0X 0X0

sf11 said

[snip]

ps I have a po box cuz I don't want anyone knowing where I live and its perfectly legal

I believe Ontario drivers licenses MUST have a physical address.

GS

Perhaps, if you rent where you live, you could satisfy them with a notarized copy of your lease. I don't think this would work as well with home ownership, as one can own a home without living there.
I guess it depends on how badly you want to bank with them.
I suspect though that this problem will occur again with other financial institutions, as they are all tightening up because of hackers and so on.
It's ironic when you consider that we are about to lose home delivery from Canada Post.
Come to think of it, could you get some document from the Post Office to verify that this is your legitimate mailing address?

They do require residential addresses, that's a mandatory Know Your Customer rule and federal regulatory/legislative requirement. However, I don't believe the driver's license needs to specify the residential address (although most do, at least in B.C. where your P.O. box is listed above your street address in the case of rural addresses). They should have disclosed their requirements to you before pulling your credit bureau. If they didn't, they were negligent and I'd work with them, on the phone and in writing, to get the "remark" removed from your credit bureau.

Proof of residential address can be as simple, I believe, as the address on your preprinted cheque. If you don't have one, ask if they'll accept a utility bill or credit card statement. If they won't accept any of that, you don't want to deal with them and neither should anyone on these forums and I would argue would be more than sufficient grounds for their immediate removal from this site's "comparison chart" (i.e., lack of a uniform, non-face-to-face account opening process).

They should only need your CareCard and birth certificate for ID and you have the right to demand they use your P.O. Box as your mailing address, but they do need a residential address. I'd suggest working with them on a case-by-case basis type thing and ask to speak with the supervisor in the first instance. If that fails, ask to speak to the supervisor's manager. If that fails, complain to the Office of the President & CEO and, if that fails, go to the Ombudsman.

Cheers,
Doug

Doug:

Is there not legislation/regulations that require banks/financial institutions to get to really "know your client" to try to reduce money laundering?

When I first read this thread I figured he was hitting the anti-money laundering regs.

Greg

GS said

Doug:

Is there not legislation/regulations that require banks/financial institutions to get to really "know your client" to try to reduce money laundering?

When I first read this thread I figured he was hitting the anti-money laundering regs.

Greg

The "Know Your Client" provisions are contained with the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorism Financing Act legislation, as well as various Regulations, namely the Access to Basic Banking and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. So you're right, it seems like Peoples Trust Company is being overly cautious in this case, so much so that, if what the original poster is saying is true, seems to be prohibiting all P.O. boxes for "mailing" addresses. This is not correct business practice.

At a minimum, which is all the "Know Your Client" provisions really state, to be compliant with said provisions under relevant Regulations and federal legislation, a federally-regulated financial institution must collect, in the case of face-to-face verification: two pieces of ID (not necessarily photo, but one must be a "Type A" and the other can be a "Type A" or "Type B") that collectively and in an unexpired format show the person's full legal name, date of birth and signature. The "Type B" ID can be as simple as an employee ID card, provided it bears the person's full name and employee ID and indicates the employer for whom they work, or even a "personal reference" which is someone who deals with the same bank/trust company that the bank/trust company agrees to allow them to "vouch" (orally or written) for someone. Hence, for a parent/guardian and a child, they could open an account with as little as a birth certificate and a personal reference from that parent/guardian. The person must also provide their full residential address and, if different, their mailing address. Finally, they must provide their employment information, which can be "unemployed" or "homemaker", as well as certify their purpose of the account and if they were directed by anyone else to operate the account for that person's benefit (third party determination). It doesn't specifically state any other requirements beyond that.

In non-face-to-face verification, such as Peoples Trust Co., the requirements are the same except the ID part. The first piece of ID used is the client's credit bureau record, which remains on file for the time the account remains open, and the second piece of ID is the client's cleared, preprinted cheque drawn in CAD funds on another CAD financial institution that bears the client's signature.

That said, Peoples Trust Co. could be going beyond what is required to "know their client", but they have to be careful as they risk breaching the "Access to Basic Banking Regulations", which provide exact stipulations on when they may refuse to open an account and providing a "P.O. box" for a mailing address (not the residential address) isn't one of them. If they breach those regulations, even once, they could face an "administrative monetary penalty" if the Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada finds that to be the case in an escalated consumer complaint, hence why I'd encourage the original poster to escalate his complaint with Peoples Trust and, if after going to their Ombudsman, threaten to go to the FCAC to seek recourse. In a single instance, that penalty could be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000. At a minimum, they would be publicly shamed in the form of a written sanction from the Commissioner on FCAC's website.

Hope that helps,
Doug