As you probably know from pornstars having accounts closed, the Operation Choke Point campaign, designed to crack down on potential fraud, has been setting its sights on the adult industry. Instead of targeting only fraudsters, Operation Choke Point casts a wide net. Since Operation Choke Point began, banks have been terminating the financial dealings of legitimate, law-abiding corporations across a broad spectrum of legal industries, including the adult entertainment business.
The most recent is AEBN who had the accounts suddenly closed (my checks came from Fifth third Bank so I expect thats who it is)
Porners should probably have plans in place so that in the event that an account gets cancelled they have fall back positions because this could hit anyone.
AEBN told me that “despite being in good standing and having a compliant business history. On June 30th, we were informed by our bank that our ability to disburse funds through ACH and wire transfers was being terminated that same day. This came after previous assurances that reasonable time frames would be given to properly transition our business to avoid operational disruptions.”
AEBN goes on to state:
“This development will delay some of our business payouts to studios and affiliates payouts that otherwise would have been seamless, standard operating transactions as they have been for years. A new banking relationship has been finalized, and ACH and wire functionality is being re-established. We will begin to make disbursements on time; however, this interruption is likely to delay some disbursements for up to a week as the payment information is transferred to the new system. This is a one-time delay and once the new system is set up, disbursements will be made on time.
This news follows similar high-profile bank account closures for banking customers who were in good financial standing and happened to work in the adult industry.
All of us here at AEBN place a high value on our business partners and understand the challenging economic realities we all face. We are doing everything we can to minimize business disruptions. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have questions, please contact your studio/affiliate sales representatives through the contact information listed in the “Contact Us” page at www.aebn.net.”
AEBN has long been a solid company with an excellent standing in the business and pay attention to this story because if it can happen to them it can happen to YOU!
2 Responses
“AEBN told me that “despite being in good standing and having a compliant business history. On June 30th, we were informed by our bank that our ability to disburse funds through ACH and wire transfers was being terminated that same day.”
Unless I see a letter saying different I’m calling bullshit on this…5/3 bank has a fiduciary relationship with customers and must provide notice (usually thirty days) unless they have serious TOS violations like suspected fraud that can be proven but hasn’t yet been proven in a court of law. Which leads to next part of quote….about assurances…
“This came after previous assurances that reasonable time frames would be given to properly transition our business to avoid operational disruptions.””
Would those assurances have come during the time between initial notice giving thirty days and June 30 close date? As in choosing to believe operational change to the banks ACH processing or TOS violations could be gotten around vs covering bases and opening alternate ACH processing account?
Lastly….many banks are opting out of ACH processing altogether choosing to use third party ACH merchant processing in large part because of fee structure limitations imposed on financial institutions giving them more income using third party than direct processing.
This is not a porn issue …it is banking plain & simple. We recently started a business requiring ACH merchant processing and supplier pmts; some banks wanted a two year related business account history…despite having ample assets and a 10+ year relationship with three of them ..unless the account related to this business entity it was a no go for direct processing. Others simply said, we use third party now.
Jay Mckenney liked this on Facebook.