One Reason Offshore Bank Wires are Delayed
There are a number of common reasons why offshore bank wires are delayed. When sending or receiving international bank wires, it is best to be aware of these common delays in clearing your funds — especially when moving large sums of money or when there is a time constraint involved.
One of the newer reasons that offshore bank wires are delayed, unfortunately, is the monitoring of offshore bank transfers by government institutions. In the United States, bank wire transfers are monitored by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This Orwellian sounding institution monitors information provided in the text of the bank wire to determine if funds are being transferred to a terrorist organization or country (or entity) under sanction by the United States government.
If a financial institution suspects that your bank wire is being sent from or to one of these entities, they must block the transfer and freeze the funds.
Unfortunately, the text of your overseas wire transfer may contain a country on the blacklist and make your money transfer supected of supporting a terrorist or criminal enterprise. This can cause undue scrutiny into your financial affairs as you are unfairly painted with the same broad brush.
Even if you are aware of this problem and are a legitimate individual, carrying out legitimate business with cleared funds, it may not be enough. Why?
Even if you are smart enough to avoid using US banks, many foreign banks will have correspondent banks they use for US dollar transfers in which international bank wires are routed through. The unfortunate result can be that a businessman sending US dollars from Argentina to Venezuela could have their bank wire held up at a US intermediary bank in New York.
In addition, since the intermediary bank is collecting the float on your funds, they are often disincentivized to move your international bank wire through on a timely basis.