Do you think the day will come when we cannot access our bank funds?

The only way they can do that at the moment is for things like waiting for a check to clear, or if its not a regular bank account (like a CD or something).

I doubt very much that this will ever be instituted because, who would ever put their money in there?

I thought some kind of natural disaster would allow them to keep the funds?

Did he owe you money?

Did he have a judgment against him?

Was he in the final stages of bankruptcy?

@Tropical_Willie no, he has never owed me a dime and no to the bankruptcy question. As far as a judgment, I don’t know. But that is possible. He was the type who would buy something, change his mind then not pay for it.
He lies so much he could have made it up.

@Aster… this sounds like he made it up.

^^^^ I wonder why on earth he’d make up something like that?? He has a great income.

When there is a ‘run’ on banks, they often don’t have the cash reserves on hand to pay out in cash to every account holder. By law, for their founding, they are bound to have a certain percentage easily liquid, I believe, but if EVERY account holder showed up, they simply would not have the cash available. Especially if it was an old Savings and Loan or ‘Building Society’ because they usually had their capital invested in home mortgages and the like.

There are investments and bonds that can not be paid out on demand, or not without a penalty of some sort. The most simple we used were 30 or 60 or 90 day holdings, which meant, for at least a minimum lump sum… say $5000, you would agree with your bank that you would NOT touch this money and for that, the bank would pay a higher rate of interest for the term of the ‘holding’. Perhaps, he had placed his funds in one of these types of ‘holdings’ for a term and forgot, or something.

Sounds like “his” money is in “someone else’s” account.

Perhaps he opened an account under a fake name to hide income, and now doesn’t have the identification necessary to get the money out. The advent of “know your customer” legislation has tightened up access to accounts and you must be able to prove that you are the account holder.

Wouldn’t surprise me in the least. As long as it’s all electronic and depends (a) on the integrity of computer data and (b) on electricity, it is vulnerable to all kinds of failures, screwups, and illegal activity.

But this does not sound like what happened to your friend. I think he simply invented this story.

Banks got insurance. Such an event is very unlikely in the Western world. The insurance companies and entire countries would have to declare bankruptcy.