...to think 4 weeks is insanely too long for an international money transfer

[YDBear]

On April 8 DH and I sent a large sum on money to my bank account in Taiwan. Let just say between £100 and £200k. This was savings that we were going to use to buy a house in my home country. Money left our account with Lloyds Bank on April 11. At the time of writing, 4 weeks, 1 day later, it still hasn’t arrived in Taiwan.
When I arrived in Taiwan I phoned my bank April 22 to ask where the money was. They said they knew nothing about it. So, I phoned Lloyds in London, to ask what happened. “Strange you should call,” they said, “because we have a list of due diligence questions came in today that need answering.” So we go through the questions—what city was I born in and what passports do I hold and what’s my Taiwan ID card number and a bunch of other intrusive stuff, then Lloyds say they will send this on and if the answers are OK then the transfer should go ahead.
I ring back on April 27 to ask if the answers to the questions were OK. “We haven’t heard back yet,” I am told. I ring again on the 29th, only to be told that the answers weren’t forwarded until the 27th, so basically I can see nothing happens without my calling and pushing them. I also found out that the holdup is with NatWest. Lloyds don't have a relationship with my bank in Taiwan so they use NatWest as an intermediary. The due diligence is from NatWest’s compliance department. “They have a bit of a backlog, I’m afraid” I am told “because of Russian sanctions.”
Since then I have been phoning Lloyds on an almost daily basis, trying to get them to kick NatWest’s backside--I’m not Russian, the money isn’t Russian and it’s not going to Russia, so what’s the problem? Lloyds promised me they would do some bum-kicking last Friday and call me back in four working days to tell me the result. So far the phone has been silent (what else did I expect?), and, while there is one day left, I have no doubt whatsoever that they won’t call and I shall be on the phone again toward close of business tomorrow very irate indeed.
Anyway, some of you out there must work for banks. Is it normal that a simple wire transfer aboard these days takes 4 weeks and counting to complete? I’m sorry but if this is the norm shouldn't we be told? Had I read anywhere at all that transfers of funds were held up to this extent, I wouldn't have done it. How completely incompetent/messed up is our banking system?

You sent a very large sum of money, presumably needed in short order, overseas and you didn't think to discuss it with your bank ahead of time?

I think you've been a bit naive here I'm afraid.

I often have to send similar sums of money overseas for work on behalf of clients and we usually give the banks/IMs the heads up at least 2 weeks in advance, where possible.

I'm afraid you're going to have to go through the due diligence, it'll take as long as it takes.

Did you speak to Lloyds before you went ahead and made the transfer, or did you just make the transfer and expect it to go through?

Banks are quite heavily regulated in relation to anti money laundering and would be considered remiss if they didn't complete these additional checks to make sure the transfer is a legitimate one.

The things that are slowing you down is that your bank doesn't do the transfer so are having to use an intermediary which always takes longer.

You're funds aren't related to Russia however you will be in a queue and they are normally worked in order so the backlog unfortunately will affect you.

It's a large amount of money and enhanced due diligence is required and they take a while to be checked.

However I do think they should be more clear in the processes to you and try to give realistic timescales

We have in the past sent larger sums of money from Taiwan to the UK and it’s arrived in 3 days. If we are “being naive” here it’s in thinking that the world’s financial hub can perform anything like as well as a high street bank in Taipei. As for the “did you speak to your bank” business, we made the transfer at a bank face-to-face, not over the internet. We should have been warned about the insane delays at the time, if this was a regular thing.