What Should You Know If Your Account Gets Blocked For a Review
As a financial services company in the European Union, WestStein has to comply with the same laws and regulations as banks do. This includes blocking accounts for a review to secure your funds from fraudulent activities or to ensure lawful transactions with money.
When it comes to transactions with money, there are 3 linked parties:
- You or your business – responsible for receiving, sending, withdrawing or paying with money in a legal manner.
- Financial company or bank – responsible for ensuring your money is kept safe and to detect any kind of suspicious activity defined by financial regulators.
- Financial regulators – responsible for setting laws and guidelines for financial companies and banks to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
In short, financial regulators develop regulations which must be followed and fulfilled by banks and financial institutions to make sure you’re using your private or business account in accordance with the law.
How does WestStein comply with regulations?
In order to comply with regulations and to prevent private and corporate clients from being involved in unlawful activities with WestStein accounts, on behalf of PFS Ltd. (the WestStein program issuer) we are obliged to:
- Verify our customers – we ask for documents that verify your identity and residence address. This is known as KYC (Know Your Customer) process.
- Ask for additional information – sometimes, account usage may seem suspicious, although you haven’t done anything illegitimate. In such cases, we may request detailed information to double-check if everything’s all right.
- Request documentation – we may request documents to prove the source of funds (where did money on your WestStein account come from).
Why can your account get blocked?
In accordance with 12. section of the WestStein Terms and Conditions, Directive (EU) 2018/843of the European Parliament and of the Council, PFS Ltd. may terminate or suspend the use of your WestStein account and card for a reasonable period.
You can find all the reasons for suspending your account and card in 12.4. section of WestStein terms and conditions.
Please note that sometimes your account might be blocked to secure your funds and account data if, for example, unauthorized transactions have been detected.
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Where is your money if your account is blocked?
Your funds aren’t gone in case your account is blocked for a review. Instead, you simply cannot send, receive, withdraw your funds or pay with your card while the transaction reviewal is ongoing.
We understand it’s very frustrating if you suddenly can’t use your account. Please note that your money is there and will be available once we’ve gone through the review according to the regulator’s guidelines. Therefore, we would highly appreciate your understanding and welcome you not to jump to false conclusions.
How does the account reviewal work?
- Account is blocked
- We contact you and request information via email
- You provide us with answers and documentation
- Answers are forwarded to the responsible department at PFS Ltd.
- We receive a decision from the responsible department
- You are informed via email
Please note that the responsible department might ask for supplementary explanations, in case the provided information is insufficient.
How can our support team help you?
WestStein customer support can communicate with you on behalf of the responsible department at PFS Ltd. We’d like to remind that our customer support doesn’t have the right to block and unblock your account and to provide details about your account reviewal process.
We truly appreciate your understanding and apologize if you’re experiencing any inconvenience. Please, contact us at [email protected] if there are other questions you’d like us to answer about this topic.