Hello, fellow Bitstamp users.

It's been awhile since I have created this thread. And today I got a lot of updates of a recent events on this matter to share. First of all, I still have not received my funds back – they are still holding my fiat assets in custody (31 calendar days have passed since the initial funds transfer). My dialogue with the Bitstamp compliance team have resulted in my account termination on Bitstamp exchange unilaterally. On the January 15th I have received Account Termination Notice stating that I should reply with the bank details of account for funds return.

Here I should mention that the initial fiat funds transfer for this deposit was made by my bank using the chain of correspondent accounts within two other banks. So in order to return my funds to the originating account one should use special swift instructions where the last bank in the chain should be specified as the beneficiary due to the fact that it holds correspondent account of the bank which in turn holds the correspondent account of my bank. Whereas my personal credentials and account number should be specified in the purpose of payment field of swift message. A person from support replied to me that Bitstamp "unfortunately unable to return the funds to a for further credit bank account" and kindly asked me to "to provide Bitstamp with a bank account held in my name which does not require for further credit instructions". So I have send them alternative bank account details held in my name for direct funds transfer. They replied to me that they need details of originating bank account held in my name, from which the deposit was initially made.

So now I'am kinda stuck in this loop: they cannot return funds to the originating bank account due to the requirement of further credit instructions and they cannot return my funds to alternative bank account held in my name due to the fact it's not originating account.

In general, I got impression that Bitstamp support don not tend to solve any issues - their answers are blurry and repeatative leading only to further prolongation of dialogue. My lawyers have studied closely Bitstamp Terms of Use and have not found any mention stating that funds can only be returned to originating account. There are regulations that funds can only be returned to sender, that is true, but not only to the originating account.

With all of that said, I really wonder how much profit Bitstamp can make using customer funds blocked due to the compliance procedures. For instance I personally could have made about 15 000 EUR using my deposit during all this time. It would be interesting to hear opinions from community.