Quote from IBj:
Record straightening time as, of course, there are omitted facts:
December: compliance investigation into account leads IB to determine that the funding activity suggests activity/business that IB does not permit ( the funds are arriving from many different 3rd party locations).
February: IB starts returning funds to the accounts from whence they came. These are 3rd party accounts. Names don't match so there are rejections from the third parties' banks (3rd party money movements are problematic for a variety of operational, AML, and regulatory reasons). It takes 4 months to get all the receiving banks to take the funds properly. The last $150 is withheld because the security device had not been returned.
August: account is force closed by IB compliance department when the remaining liability (token deposit) is written down and the remaining $132.72 is deducted to bring the account to zero
December: device is returned. The account no longer exists so there is no way in the normal systems to recredit the account automatically (remember, we normally dont take the money, we merely reserve it. Un-reserving is built. Un-debiting automatically is not)
March 2 years after this started: here we are.
Post-mortem:
(1) Most organizations define time limits on fulfilling obligations after an event or contractual relationship ends. For example, you have 30 days to complain on your credit card. It seems IB has not have defined a time limit for returning security devices. We will fix that so there aren't such open-ended issues and there is a greater clarity on expectations regarding device return.
(2) There really isn't any department in charge of this. In principle, we should have said "sorry, too late". The device was de-registered (which happens when it is written off as lost/stolen) so it is became an expensive 4 ounce useless paperweight.
(3) We will send back the deposit ($150).
