Why would a bank account be frozen? The reasons for closing the account may be these 5!

As a platform for managing public funds, banks are obliged to strictly cooperate with government actions, and even take actions to jointly combat money laundering and other activities. Among them, the most serious restriction or freezing of accounts prevents the parties/legal persons from being able to withdraw and transfer funds. The situation may vary greatly. Many people will wonder why the bank freezes the account?

Generally speaking, all bank funds are protected by Article 105 of the Basic Law, which states that “the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall protect the rights of acquisition, use, disposal and inheritance of private and legal persons’ property in accordance with the law.” However, there are still cases where account holders are required to Pay more attention, the following summarizes the reasons for X Hong Kong banks to freeze accounts:

1. The bank judges that the account is suspected of money laundering (frequent in and out of large funds)

Although you are not actually involved in money laundering activities, if the Hong Kong police find out that there are suspicious transaction records in your account, your account is likely to be frozen.

For example, if there are large-scale and frequent remittances in and out of your account from unknown sources in your account, the police will have reason to suspect that the property is from “money laundering”, and apply to the bank to temporarily freeze the relevant funds. The bank account where the account is opened.

You can rest assured that in cases of suspected money laundering, the bank will check with the customer in advance, and will freeze the account once the suspicion of committing the crime cannot be relieved. And if the evidence is insufficient, the court will not allow the relevant bank account to continue to be frozen.

2. Due to criminal activities, the government has instructed to freeze the account

Another possibility of being frozen is that banks should freeze the bank accounts of persons suspected of being involved in crimes under the premise of maintaining national security under the “Hong Kong National Security Law”. In this case, not only will the account of the person involved be frozen, but it is also more likely to be restricted, confiscated, and confiscation of related assets.

3. Idle your bank account for a long time

If you idle your bank account for a long time, there is a chance that the account will be frozen by the bank. However, this level of freezing may mean that you cannot use over-the-counter transactions, and some banks allow limited over-the-counter withdrawal and deposit services.

If you are really unfortunate in this situation, you can bring your identification documents to the bank to carry out the unblocking procedure in person, and remember to take care of your account regularly in the future.

4. Failure to contact the account holder

Because the bank will regularly update the account information, and may call the account holder to verify. If the bank has contacted many times, but you still have not responded for a long time, it may be the reason for the bank to freeze the account. Same as above, as long as you go to the bank to update your information in person, you can unblock it.

5. The declared purpose of the bank account is inconsistent with the actual

When opening a business account, the staff will conduct KYC (Know Your Customer) on you. During the process, they will understand your business purpose, the actual purpose of opening an account, and so on. When you use a business account, if the bank finds that the funds in the account and the purpose of the account are different from the original application, the bank has a reason to freeze the account.