Where’s my loan?

Can you please assist? My husband applied for a personal loan with his bank.

Before this application, a friend paid him back a certain amount she owed him and the payment was done through the bank. Now the lady who was assisting him at the bank says they cannot assist him with the loan he requested because he has to submit a formal written letter with a stamp and letterhead from the person who was paying him back. Mind you they were just friends assisting each other with money. Now the question is, since they are just friends, where should they get the letter with stamps and letterheads because it was not even company money or anything.

How is that possible and how can we go about it?

I haven’t spoken to the bank but I think I know what’s happening here. I think this is about the anti-money laundering laws that banks are required to follow. These AML rules say that banks need to have some knowledge about where the money we receive and give to other people comes from and what it’s being used for. Most of the time it’s simple. We get our salary, we pay our bills, we go shopping and occasionally we make large purchases. Those are easy for the bank to understand because they can see when we swipe what we’re doing. However, payments they can’t easily understand make them unhappy if they can’t explain what’s happening. The authorities are entitled to wonder whether the money is secretly funding terrorism, drug smuggling or the paying protection money to the mafia.

I suggest that we both speak to the bank and ask them how they can help you fix this problem.