I first noticed the problem checking my bank account April 5 to see if my monthly pension deposit had been made. It had not. This was a big surprise. For more than 20 years, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce had been meticulous in transmitting my university pension to my account at the Cambridge branch of the Toronto Dominion bank. (Don’t you love those colonial names?)
Where was my money? Although I don’t live paycheck to paycheck, I might have had to draw on savings to get through the month if my deposit did not arrive soon.
My first approach was to the university pension plan. I exchanged emails and had one conversation with a staffer. The upshot was that as far as it was concerned, my pension was paid and – and this is the important bit – TD Bank had acknowledged receiving it. Horrors! My money was adrift somewhere in the cross-border banking system. TD Bank had it, but I didn’t.
My next step was to talk to my bank. After an inconclusive phone call, it was agreed that I would have to go in to the Alewife branch and discuss the issue with a supervisor. This I did.
The results sequentially astonished, alarmed and outraged me. After talking with the supervisor, she made a call to someone up the money chain in the international department who confirmed that: Yes, the bank had received the money, but it was “held up by the feds.” Held up by the U.S. government? Why? That they could not say. There was no notation in the record.
Eventually, on April 15, the funds were deposited. I still do not know why the funds were delayed. People at the pension plan assured me that no one else in my position had complained. Others in the area may be vulnerable to this; 30 percent of Cambridge residents are foreign born.
Have the Feds finally caught up with me for my mild anti-Trump protesting and related writings? I wonder. But maybe not, as I was allowed back into the country last year without being hassled at immigration control points. People were being arrested for failing to declare research materials. People had been refused entry for having an unflattering portrait of the vice president on their phone. My phone was loaded with critiques of the president. But they just processed me normally at immigration and said “welcome home.” (I was relieved, though a bit disappointed my writings had had no impact.) Furthermore, I was allowed to renew my passport in February, so maybe the bank delay marked me as just a random victim of ongoing trade and tariff tensions between America and Canada.
In May, my deposit was 10 days late again; in June and July it was back to normal. I am eager to see what happens to my next monthly deposit. Maybe they have moved on to hassling someone else.
Martin G. Evans is a freelance writer. He writes about managerial and political issues, with contributions to The Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal and elsewhere, and was previously a professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and has taught at the London Business School, Harvard School of Public Health and elsewhere.
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