Banks vs. Entrepreneurs: Which One Drives Us Crazier?

Banks are our loyal financial “friends” — business cannot do without them. Yet sometimes it feels as if these friends look more like strict overseers. In practice, entrepreneurs run into a host of irritating restrictions from the banking system. Here we tell you about all its “delights” — from payments that hang in mid-air to frozen accounts — in a light, cheeky, detail-rich style.

Money transfers as a lottery: delays, blocks, unpredictability

Every entrepreneur has sighed heavily at least once, staring at their online-banking screen: the payment is hanging in mid-air. A simple transfer, you would think — and yet the money does not arrive in a minute, or in an hour. Sometimes a transaction that used to go through in a couple of hours now takes two or three days, especially for a large sum. Clients already joke that “the bigger the amount, the longer the bank spins it” (Crediting delays — reviews of Svyaznoy Bank). It is unpleasant to realise that your own funds can get stuck in the depths of the bank’s servers with no explanation.

Why are transfers delayed or blocked? The reasons can be either relatively understandable or frankly mysterious. Here are the typical situations:

• Technical glitches. The official version is “our system is updating, please wait a little”. In practice the money can get stuck on the way because of the bank’s internal problems, which clients learn about after the fact.
• Vigilance or over-caution? Banks are obliged to monitor suspicious operations. If your transfer somehow does not appeal to the algorithms or the security service, it may be suspended. Russia’s Central Bank, for example, has required banks since 2024 to temporarily block transfers if the recipient ends up on a certain “blacklist” (flagged for fraud, etc.). The bank must freeze the payment for two days as part of the fight against fraudsters (From 25 July 2024 banks will suspend suspicious transfers ). Good intentions, of course… But for an entrepreneur it means a sudden stop on a payment “for a check” — even if neither you nor your counterparty broke any rules.
• A manual compliance check. Sometimes automation is not enough: the transaction is paused and you are asked to explain the origin of the money or the purpose of the payment. Your payment to a supplier can turn into an interrogation: “and what are you paying for, send the invoice or the contract”. While you gather the paperwork, the payment deadline burns.
• With no explanation. The most irritating thing is when a transfer simply hangs with no comment. No notification, no call. The money has left your account but has not reached the recipient. The bank unflappably advises you to “wait five business days” — supposedly the law lets them take that long to process the operation (Why do delays arise when transferring money between banks?). And you sit there, counting the days and losing the trust of partners who have received nothing.

In the end, planning your finances turns into a lottery. Today a payment goes through instantly; tomorrow an identical one is blocked. It is hard to predict, and there is plenty of stress to go around.

Your money, someone else’s limits: “inadequate” restrictions on transfers and cash

“What do you mean I can’t withdraw AS MUCH as I want? It’s my account!” — fume entrepreneurs encountering bank limits for the first time. But no: at the bank, your money lives by the bank’s rules. Restrictions on transfers and withdrawals sometimes look like a mockery of common sense.

Examples of limits that make your blood boil:

• Daily transfer limits. Many banks have a maximum amount you can send per day through online banking. Say, no more than 500,000 roubles a day from a current account without extra confirmation. If you urgently need to transfer 700K to a counterparty, kindly split the payment over two days or go to the branch with a written instruction. Convenient? Not really.
• Cash-withdrawal limits. Trying to withdraw a large sum from your own account can turn into a quest. ATMs have limits on a single dispense and on the daily volume. Even in prosperous Kazakhstan the state has officially capped the monthly cash volume for business: for small businesses, no more than 20 million tenge; for medium-sized ones, up to 120 million tenge a month (On cash-withdrawal limits for businesses — Adilet legal database). That is about $40K and $240K respectively. If a business suddenly needs more for paying salaries or settling in cash — alas, you will have to explain yourself to the bank (or split the amount across different accounts and months).
• The currency ceiling. A separate pain is restrictions on foreign currency. After 2022, Russia introduced a draconian rule: you can withdraw a maximum of $10,000 in cash from a foreign-currency account, the rest only in roubles at the exchange rate ($10,000 each: why the CB limited currency withdrawals ). And it does not matter that you have hundreds of thousands of dollars on the account — they will not give you more than ten thousand “greenbacks” at the counter. The deadline for this restriction keeps being extended (The CB extended the limit on withdrawing foreign cash). So access to your own currency savings is effectively heavily curtailed.
• Capped cross-border payments. Sending money abroad is an adventure too. Entrepreneurs from Russia, for example, may be given a monthly limit on transfers to non-residents. Exceed it and the payment will not go through — wait for next month or for special permissions. In some cases the restriction is set by law, in others the bank itself plays it safe, fearing sanctions and regulators (Why Dubai banks do not open accounts for Russians and block payments in 2024 — vc.ru). In some Middle Eastern countries, banks impose especially strict requirements: even a large client may be dictated terms, from a minimum balance to elevated fees.

“Inadequate” is what entrepreneurs call these limits, because they often fail to account for real business needs. A company can have millions on its account yet face a situation where getting at its own money is a problem. As a result, you have to plan ahead: split a large deal into several tranches within the limit, for example, and announce a cash withdrawal to the bank days in advance (so they “approve” it). A sad picture: the account holder becomes a supplicant for access to their own funds.

KYC, AML and other humiliating procedures: the bank as Big Brother

Anyone who has opened a business account is familiar with the abbreviations KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering). In reality they conceal the bank’s deep dive into your personal and business life. “Know your customer” checks are often so intrusive and subjective that entrepreneurs feel like suspects from the outset.

It all begins at account opening. You are asked to fill in a thick form and provide a pile of documents. The opacity of the process is that every bank demands its own. One is satisfied with the company charter and the director’s passport; another asks for the office lease, tax returns, reference letters and — suddenly — a utility bill for your home address. It reaches the absurd: there are tales of people lugging stacks of paper into the bank, down to electricity receipts or supermarket cheques, to prove they actually live in the country (Why Dubai banks do not open accounts for Russians and block payments in 2024 — vc.ru). Not a check but a farce!

The humiliation of KYC procedures is felt when the bank starts asking questions like: “Why did your revenue drop so much last month? And send us a list of your key clients with their contacts, we will check them.” You want to ask: are you serious? Am I a bank client or a person of interest in an investigation? Yet if you stay quiet, you risk being refused service. Bankers love the phrase “provide proof of the source of funds”. That can be anything — from an income statement to a sale-and-purchase agreement. And yes, the bank has the right to demand such documents under the anti-money-laundering law (How to prove the origin of money for a bank: which documents you will need). Don’t show them and the operation is suspended, or the account is closed altogether. So the presumption of innocence is not for financiers: first prove you are not laundering money, then maybe we will unfreeze your funds.

Even more infuriating is the subjectivity and unpredictability of compliance. The internal rules are a closely guarded secret. One manager accepts a copy of a contract; another says “we need the original with a blue stamp and notarisation”. One bank approved you, another did not — and will not disclose the reason for the refusal. So the entrepreneur dashes from bank to bank with a folder of documents, trying to guess the whims of the compliance services.

Foreigners and “inconvenient” industries get it especially hard. In the UAE today, for instance, compliance is very strict: if the founders hold Russian citizenship, that automatically means an elevated risk level and an in-depth check (Why Dubai banks do not open accounts for Russians and block payments in 2024 — vc.ru). Emirati banks require convincing proof that the business is real, that the owners hold a local residence visa, and so on. Without that, a refusal is all but guaranteed. And sometimes the conditions are downright fantastical: there is a known case where a bank requested a minimum balance of $2 million on the account to open it for a company in a “high-risk” field. Naturally, such an entry ticket is beyond most people’s means.

Rules on the fly: when the bank unilaterally changes the game

You have signed a service agreement with the bank and think everything is clear and stable? Think again! The contract almost certainly says, in small print, that the bank has the right to change the terms unilaterally. And many have run into this: you open an account today — tomorrow a notice arrives that the fees are going up. Or your current-account overdraft is suddenly cut by the bank without your consent. The bank has simply exercised its right to rewrite the rules, and the client is left either to accept it or to run to another bank (where it can all happen again).

Fees, for example, change often. A new fee can appear for an operation that previously had none. A classic of the genre: a fee for cash withdrawals from a corporate card. You opened it believing you paid only a one-off percentage, and then the bank suddenly introduced an additional fixed charge for each withdrawal. Outrageous, you would think — but no, under the old rules it was legal. Only recently did Russia’s Supreme Court come to its senses and rule that a bank has no right to unilaterally introduce new fees under existing credit agreements, declaring such terms void (Russia’s Supreme Court banned banks from unilaterally introducing new fees ). So legally such surprises are now outside the law (at least for credit and consumers). But for how many years before that did banks practise such tricks! And even now there are plenty of loopholes — the court ruling concerns consumer-credit fees, while, say, changing the service tariffs for a sole proprietor or an LLC can still be done by mere notice.

It is no better in other countries. A foreign bank’s account-opening agreement almost always has a clause allowing the tariffs to be changed with prior notice to the client (30 days, for example). That means the bank will formally warn you, and after that do as it pleases. Arguing is pointless — either you accept the new terms or you close the account.

Such one-sided flexibility means one thing for business: no certainty about tomorrow. Today service is free, tomorrow there is a subscription fee. Today transfers are commission-free, tomorrow there is a percentage of turnover. Try planning your expenses! As a result, entrepreneurs are forced to constantly monitor the bank’s news like a weather forecast — is a tariff storm rolling in?

“We don’t want you”: a bank refusal with no explanation

Picture this: you are legally in the country, you have a clean, transparent business, you come to the bank with a full set of documents — and they tell you “sorry, we can’t open an account”. Why? “You don’t fit our internal policy.” What exactly is wrong — they will not say. Entrepreneurs in various countries face this phenomenon. And the most galling part is that it is entirely legal.

Banks are not obliged to justify a refusal at all. Moreover, in the Emirates it is prohibited by law to disclose the reason for a refusal to the client (What if a bank in the UAE refuses to open an account for you?). The bank just utters a boilerplate phrase — and goodbye. In Russia and Kazakhstan the law officially does not require stating the reason for refusing to open an account, though such cases attract less publicity. But entrepreneurs share their stories: one was refused over “unsuitable citizenship” (with an unofficial hint at sanctions risk), another over a partner’s criminal record, and another for no visible reason at all.

Why do banks refuse decent people? There are several possible reasons (which you will only learn about indirectly):

• A negative background: the bank ran you through its databases or “blacklists” and found something — maybe a namesake among terrorists, or a long-standing tax debt of your partner. It is easier to refuse than to sort it out.
• An unstable or unclear business: if your field looks risky to the bank (crypto, currency exchange, gambling, for example), there is a good chance the account will not be opened, even if the business is legal. In the UAE, for instance, there are whole lists of undesirable activities and categories of persons (What if a bank in the UAE refuses to open an account for you?).
• No local ties: a foreigner without a residence permit, or a company without an office, may be refused simply because “we don’t like the client’s profile”. The bank does not want to bother with a remote non-resident — the compliance costs are high.
• An internal quota: the bank may have a target for the number of new accounts or a limit by clients’ country of origin. If the target is met or the quota for “risky foreigners” is used up, you are politely turned away.

The especially sad part is that counting on an explanation is pointless. “We do not disclose the reason for refusal” — many entrepreneurs have heard this phrase. In essence, the bank leaves you in the dark: go and guess what is wrong with you. And you are forced either to knock on another bank’s door or to spend time and money on intermediaries who will help “improve your chances” (and often simply know which bank is currently more lenient towards people like you). So the client depends on the bank’s whim from the very entrance. The banking system resembles an elite club: pass the face control and you are in; if not — sorry, the list is closed.

Frozen funds and being cut off from online banking: a nightmare without warning

Worse than a sudden refusal to open an account can only be the sudden blocking of an account that is already working. The business was running, paying salaries, closing deals — and then bang, no access. You log into online banking and see: “Operations suspended”. The cards do not work, counterparties call: “our payment is bouncing back, what happened?”. What happened is that the bank froze your funds. Why? Again, “in accordance with the law”. The magic anti-money-laundering act in Russia gives banks the right to block an account at the slightest suspicion of money laundering. And they use that right very actively (Anti-money-laundering law and account blocking ).

What can get an account frozen? Just about anything, judging by practice:

• An atypical operation. A small sole proprietor, for example, suddenly received a large advance payment and immediately withdrew almost all of it in cash — as in one real case, after which the bank instantly blocked the account (The bank blocked a sole proprietor’s account. A story from practice). For the entrepreneur it was a shock (“it’s my money!”), but the bank decided that this was how funds are siphoned off in cash-out schemes. They had to prove the deal was legal and that the withdrawal had a purpose.
• A transfer to an individual or abroad. A company sent a round sum to an individual’s account — expect questions: “what for, where’s the contract?”. Or you sent money abroad to a partner — there is a high chance of a document check, and the account may be shut until they are received.
• Just bad luck. There are cases of mass account blocking due to external causes. In Kazakhstan in early 2025, for example, more than 2,000 people suddenly faced account blocks — both Kazakhs and relocated Russians (Russians in northern Kazakhstan had their accounts blocked ). Officially this was part of an investigation whose details were not disclosed. So the accounts were frozen, and the owners were left without money and without clarity about what had happened and when it would be unfrozen.

The bank is usually in no hurry to explain the details. At most it will send a demand to provide documents (contracts, invoices, explanatory notes). While you gather the paperwork, the money lies dead weight on the frozen account. The check periods float: up to 30 days by law, but they can drag it out longer, especially if the authorities get involved. All this time the business can be paralysed: unable to pay taxes or salaries… while the bank stays unflappably out of the game — it is “just complying with the law”.

A separate kind of torture is being cut off from remote banking. Sometimes the account is not formally closed or even fully frozen, but the online bank is switched off. The client loses the ability to make payments remotely or check the balance — effectively dragged back to the Stone Age of banking. Want to manage the account? Come to the office in person with paper instructions. How do you like that in the digital age? Yet banks practise it: if they suspect a login is compromised or simply do not trust you, they may cut access without warning “for security reasons”. Or as a sanction: “we have removed your company from remote banking, service only via a teller”. It sounds like a verdict. For an entrepreneur it is a colossal cost in time and nerves, especially if they are geographically far from a branch.

Without warning is the key point. Almost always all these restrictions come down suddenly. No one writes in advance: “Dear client, in a week we plan to freeze your account for such-and-such reasons.” No, it all happens abruptly, leaving the business at a dead end. Then begin the long talks with support, the trips to the bank, the letters, the explanations… with no guarantee the problem will be solved quickly. The bank feels like the master of the situation: it pressed “Stop” — and you are helpless until it presses “Go”.

The home straight: a satirical conclusion with no right of appeal

So, in the entrepreneur’s eyes, the banking system is like a strict teacher who stands you in the corner for the slightest offence, sometimes without even an explanation. You can run your business perfectly and obey the law, but:

• Transfers arrive whenever they please,
• Access to your money is restricted by limits as if you were in kindergarten,
• Compliance procedures make you prove you are not a camel,
• The rules change at the bank’s will — get used to it, client,
• An account may not be opened just because they “don’t feel like it”,
• And it may be closed or frozen whenever they wish — then try getting your property back.

Of course, banks hide behind good intentions: security, the fight against laundering, regulators’ requirements. No one disputes that financial cleanliness is needed. But you get the feeling that in this fight it is often the normal, law-abiding entrepreneurs who suffer, forced to play a strange game. In this game the bank always leads, and the business has to adapt, spending time, money and nerves to overcome artificially created barriers.

Can anything be done? Partly, yes: diversify your bank accounts (keep money in several banks and countries to reduce risk), carefully fulfil all the document requirements, be the “ideal” client on paper. But full insurance is impossible. The banking system remains quite the bureaucratic monster, and entrepreneurs willy-nilly have to get along with it.

All that is left is to bring a healthy dose of irony (so as not to go mad) and always have a plan B in case your favourite bank decides to show its tough temper. After all, forewarned is forearmed. And our sarcastic overview, we hope, will prepare anyone to meet the banks’ “surprises” fully armed with knowledge and a touch of scepticism.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do banks irritate entrepreneurs?

Bureaucratic procedures, excessive document requirements, opaque lending decisions, slow processes and the feeling that the bank works against the client. Often this is a consequence of strict regulatory requirements rather than the bank’s ill will.

What irritates banks about entrepreneurs?

Incomplete or poor-quality financial reporting, unrealistic business plans, an opaque ownership structure, mixing personal and business finances, and expecting instant decisions on complex loan applications.

How do you build a productive relationship with a bank?

Choose a bank that specialises in your industry. Keep up regular communication with your manager. Prepare quality reporting and share information proactively. Understand the bank’s requirements before applying — this saves time for both sides.

Is it worth working with several banks?

Yes — diversifying banking relationships reduces dependence on a single institution and gives leverage in negotiating terms. The optimum is 2–3 banks with different strengths (operational, lending, international).

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