Does anyone here understand a lot about international wires, ABA numbers, Fedwire and payments?

D

Daal

I'm having an issue with an international wire. I sent from my account at my non-US bank to my US bank (TIAA bank). They use Citibank as a correspondent bank and Citigroup gave the following message to my non-US bank:
"
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE UNABLE TO LOCATE AN INTERMEDIARY BANK FOR CREFUS31XXX. IN RESPONSE TO YOUR MT199 DD 11FEB2019. PLEASE CONFIRM THE BELOW FORMAT.

F57 30995037 TIAA, FSB RETAIL DEPOSIT WIRES F59 #MYACCOUNT NUMBER

.

IF WE DO NOT RECEIVE INTERMEDIARY BANK DETAILS BY 13FEB2019, WE WILL CANCEL THE PAYMENT AND CONSIDER IT NULL AND VOID."

I tried to ask TIAA bank about an intermediary bank but the customer service is too incompetent to even know what that is, furthermore their website do not list that information at all
https://www.tiaabank.com/support/easy-deposits

But what I dont get is, TIAA bank is an american bank with a working ABA number. They are on Fedwire (right?) so all Citibank has to do is to send the funds through Fedwire directly to TIAA, there is no need for an intermediary. Am I correct? Can anyone make sense of why would they ask me for a intermediary when I gave details of a US bank directly connected to the US payment system?
 
I'm no expert but an ABA number for an international wire transfer is irrelevant. You would need to use the receiving bank's SWIFT code for a direct international transfer, not their ABA number.

Also, I've had experiences where the bank person sending the wire screwed everything up because they set the wire up like there needed to be an intermediary bank but they never actually filled in the intermediary bank details on the wire transfer form, so the whole thing got kicked back.
 
Baron said:
I'm no expert but an ABA number for an international wire transfer is irrelevant. You would need to use the receiving bank's SWIFT code for a direct international transfer, not their ABA number.

Also, I've had experiences where the bank person sending the wire screwed everything up because they set the wire up like there needed to be an intermediary bank but they never actually filled in the intermediary bank details on the wire transfer form, so the whole thing got kicked back.
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In this case I have provided both the ABA and Swift code, I'm not sure why they cant make the transfer to that bank given they know which bank it is
 
If you figure this out, I'd love to know what the problem was. Because it sounds like Citi is saying they can't find an intermediary bank for TIAA, but Citi is the intermediary bank!
 
Baron said:
If you figure this out, I'd love to know what the problem was. Because it sounds like Citi is saying they can't find an intermediary bank for TIAA, but Citi is the intermediary bank!
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lol, thats exactly what I was thinking. No wonder why they became a penny stock in the last recession
 
This is strange, I send money between international banks often, and in various countries. never had a problem like this. There must be an issue with the way the form was filled in. Usually , if you are doing it online, it won't let you submit until everything is done right.
 
I just received the wire, all I did was to write an email to my bank and tell them how dumb the request was and that an intermediary bank was not necessary. Somehow that was all it took. lol
 
TIAA uses BONY as an intermediate with overseas xfers. Normally your outgoing template will have a section for intermediaries.

Edit: Disregard. Wow, that was dumb.
 
Last edited:
destriero said:
TIAA uses BONY as an intermediate with overseas xfers
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I'm curious about how you found this out? Is that listed on their website? I might put that information in the future just so I dont have to deal with delays again
 
Daal said:
I'm curious about how you found this out? Is that listed on their website? I might put that information in the future just so I dont have to deal with delays again
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I honestly don't recall, but it was on the TIAA brokerage-side.
 
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