Legal Updates

A bank may refuse to open a bank account at a particular branch and refer the customer to a branch in a remote city

January 12, 2020
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A bank declined a customer's request to open a business account in its city, Acre, and referred him to another branch in a remote city because it is a branch that the bank set as a specialized branch for the accounts of the type that the customer requested.
The Court held that the policy applied by the bank in this case is reasonable. The law prohibits a bank from unreasonable refusing to provide various types of banking services such as opening a checking account. Under law, imposing unreasonable terms for service is deemed a refusal for unreasonable reasons. However, the bank's duty to provide banking services by law is not the duty to provide them in a specific place, but not to prevent them from the public. This means that the bank's refusal to provide banking services in a specific branch, while the bank enables it in another branch, is not a 'refusal' in violation of the law. Here it is a client, with a 100% disability rate, but despite the inconvenience, this is not a "refusal" to provide service and the discretion of the bank, based on its risk management policy, will not be interfered with.