Agency slaps Citibank Japan with sales suspension

Saturday 27th June, 05:40 AM JST

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ganjaa at 02:24 PM JST - 27th June

Citibank is the worst bank I've had to deal with. Beezlebub...you're right, the ask for the gaijin card. If you are American you have to surrender your social security number. This doesn't make any sense to me as it's a Japan based account. Customer service, non-existent. Also the English speaking staff they talk about...huh, mediocre at best. This young staff guy spoke to me in English like I was his "homie". Nickel, please. Learn some customer service before you come at me with that crap.

Horrible, horrible experiences with Citi...
taiko666 at 02:31 PM JST - 27th June

I opened a Citibank account the day after I arrivied in Japan. I didn't have a gaijin card. 24 hour ATMs, reasonable internet banking services (although not a good as British banks), polite service in person or on the phone (in Japanese or English), swift replacement of my lost cards... I doubt if my banking experiences would have been as good with any other mainstream bank in Japan.

Can't understand Rodney King's comments. Do you banks in the rest of the world should stop all their foreign language sevices? Or do you think being able to speak fluent Japanese should be a prerequisite to receiving banking services in Japan? And what's this cr@p about having to have millions in your Citi account? I opened my account with a 5000yen deposit.
noborito at 02:35 PM JST - 27th June

Citibank sucks. They were trying to get my SS# here in Japan saying that they are required to report it to the US government. Crazy. I had 0 yen in my account but for almost 1 year they sent me a monthly letter demanding this information.

Citibank America is exactly like the maffia. Their percentage rates are insane.

Hate that company. Glad they are getting hit hard.
harmoneeikaiwa at 02:53 PM JST - 27th June

When I closed my account back in Feb,it took an hour of paperwork and whatever else to do so.
taiko666 at 02:56 PM JST - 27th June

noborito: surely that's the US government's fault for taxing Americans whereever in the world they live. Do you think Citibank are going to deliberately break the law to save you from your tax commitments? If you wanted to avoid US tax perhaps you should've thought twice before open an account with a US bank.
BeaverCleaver at 02:56 PM JST - 27th June

Like taiko666, I also opened a Citibank account a long time ago. It was great at first. Then everything changed. My current opinion of them is the same as nobirito. Please enjoy your pain Citibank. You earned it.
smithinjapan at 03:15 PM JST - 27th June

Citibank definitely has some bad points, but lest we take our focus off the article, what they have done here is a GOOD thing. Unlike Japanese banks, they are taking steps to try to enforce Japan to enforce its own law over the mafia, laundering, etc., and it's pretty clear Japan doesn't want to do that on its own -- or simply cannot.

So, while all of you are criticizing Citibank for this and that, don't forget to double the criticism on Japan for its utter weakness in dealing with bank related crime.
fatboysosa at 03:54 PM JST - 27th June

"When I closed my account back in Feb,it took an hour of paperwork and whatever else to do so."

Try that at a regular J-bank and see how long you have to wait. It's not fun.
PepinGalarga at 04:06 PM JST - 27th June

Citibank is too much of a hassle to operate in Japan. Specifically beacause all of the hoops they make you jump.

The other day i went to close my account and they wouldnt even let me do that.

The retail branches do not have any commercial banking. They mention a "corporate division" but i wanted to open an account for my company, and they said they couldn't help me.

I have a Citicard from the USA, and went to one of the Citi branches (where I have an account) to do a cash advance with my US Passport (something I can do in any bank in China or other countries abroad) but they looked at me like I was a space alien.

terrible, terrible. Opened an account with Mitsubishi, and i can do a lot more things, less of a hassle, and cheap. The only prob is no banks in Japan have English documentation or websites.
SpanishEyez37 at 07:38 PM JST - 27th June

Tried to open an account when I lived there and it was a nightmare. Not too many people at the branch,but waited almost an hour. Customer service sucked. I said screw it,and left.

Not too bad of an experience with UFJ and Post Office account was smooth. At least UFJ has ATM's almost everywhere.
saru_au at 08:17 PM JST - 27th June

Japanese pronunciation of this bank is correct > shitty bank ...
taiko666 at 09:01 PM JST - 27th June

Japanese pronunciation of this bank is correct > shitty bank ...

Overall, banking in Japan sucks. The only developed country that doesn't allow the use of foreign Visa/Mastercards it its ATMs, ATMs which close at 9pm, having to do everything via snail-mail etc. I think most posters who are complaining about Citibank Japan are just comparing it with the much more advanced banking they enjoyed before they came to Japan.
saru_au at 11:10 PM JST - 28th June

well, to their credit citibank ATMs actually worked 24/7 (back in 1999 at least... when the most other ATMs were limited to 9am - 8pm)

I remember going to the ATM at 11:55pm so i could withdraw $1000 then 5 mins later another $1000 from my Australian bank. (but using the cirrus system, not credit)

Japan Post Bank ATM machines take Visa card from all countries, and their AMTs all have English menus for most transactions.
nigelboy at 04:30 AM JST - 29th June

Overall, banking in Japan sucks. The only developed country that doesn't allow the use of foreign Visa/Mastercards it its ATMs, ATMs which close at 9pm, having to do everything via snail-mail etc. I think most posters who are complaining about Citibank Japan are just comparing it with the much more advanced banking they enjoyed before they came to Japan.

I wouldn't call having access to ATM after 9pm as an advancement considering the fact that most of the theft occurs during those times. Sure there are times that I wished ATM were opened late at night. But that's about 2 times out of 365 days a year. I also wished that there were times when ATM's would allow more than a $500 withdrawl. But I don't go out of my way to characterize the whole banking system as "not advanced" simply because of that.
nigelboy at 04:46 AM JST - 29th June

Citibank definitely has some bad points, but lest we take our focus off the article, what they have done here is a GOOD thing.

What are you talking about? Checking other sources, not only did they not update the system where it detects those type of accounts/transaction as per 2004 order, the FSA discovered a hundred or so accounts in their audit findings. Don't assume that the Japanese banks have not implemented such in-house detection system when you can't back it up.