BACKCHAT/DIARY Backchat I


t started as a normal day for one customer of an American bank and ended under the yoke of the US’s increasing paranoia about all things slightly foreign. On September 6th this year, a customer of Emprise Bank tried to deposit a $151,000 cheque — proceeds from the sale of his home in Dearborn, Michigan — into his checking account. He and his family had recently relocated to Kansas so he could continue pursuing his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at Wichita State University.


What happened next beggar’s belief and demonstrates some of the difficulties of life in the US for anyone who is not a WASP. According to The Financial Brand, instead of depositing the cheque, the bank’s employee decided to call 911, the emergency number, to report a forgery in progress.


According to the 911 call, the teller reported that a “fake” cheque that had been washed and altered and was being presented by an “overly friendly” man who appeared to be of “Pakastani” origin. The employee also said the cheque was from a bank in Michigan, but the routing number was from a bank in Ohio.


Just before 1pm, four squad cars from three different law enforcement agencies responded to the call — one from the Kansas Highway Patrol, one from the county sheriff’s office, and another two Wichita police officers. The customer was handcuffed and questioned. His wife and 15 year-old daughter, who were waiting for him in the car, were surrounded by more police cars. Then the entire family was taken down to the Wichita Police Department.


According to the police report, detectives working in the Wichita Police Department’s financial crimes division were able to verify that the cheque, was in fact, real. They apologised for any misunderstanding and released the family… hours after the customer had showed up at the bank.


This story begs some fundamental questions about the sanity of the teller and the attitude of the bank. If someone can verify a cheque is good at 3pm in the afternoon, then it should have been good two hours earlier when it was initially presented for deposit… before the cops were called and an entire family was traumatised and hauled off to jail.


The local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, had this to say: “Would police have been called for a possible attempted forgery if you were a middle-aged white man? Bank executives say yes and are adamant that race was not a factor. But would four law-enforcement officers normally arrive for a call about a possible forgery? Would you have been handcuffed and detained by police? Would your wife and 15-year-old daughter, waiting in the car, have been detained if they weren’t wearing hijabs? There are some who think this isn’t a big deal, or complain that everything has to come down to racism. But they probably aren’t Muslim. Or persons of colour. Or of any minority.”


IN THE NEXT ISSUE


Islamic Banking technology innovations,Co-existing Islamic systems with conventional, Islamic banks in the digital age


Diary OCTOBER


9-10: Lendit Europe, London http://www.lendit.com/europe/2017


10-11: ATM & Cyber Security 2017, London www.rbrlondon.com


16-19: Sibos 2017, Toronto http://www.lendit.com/europe/2017


17-18: 2nd Annual Liquidity Risk Management, New York https://www.cefpro.com/events/


19-20: 3rd Annual Operational & Enterprise Risk Management, New York https://www.cefpro.com/events/


22-25: Money 20/20, Las Vegas https://www.money2020.com/


NOVEMBER


20-21: FinTech Asia Pacific Summit 2017, Singapore http://www.duxes-events.com/FintechAP/


23-24: BankTech Asia, Jakarta http://www.banktechasia.com


28-29: Branch Transformation 2017, London www.rbrlondon.com


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IBS Journal October 2017


51


www.ibsintelligence.com


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