That is insane. Locking an account just to get their attention? What if you were in an emergency? I would have closed my account the same day. I recently had a similar situation, where my checking account was dormant, and the bank kept on bugging me to go to the branch to update my details. They even had an employee go to my house personally and want me to sign the documents and the signature card. They wasted a lot of my time but I declined it and told them I will go there when I have time. I guess I was lucky they don't lock our accounts here in the PH yet.
Too bad, I assume. What if you are overseas?
It should be illegal to lock an account like that, especially since there is no indication of some kind of abuse. I also think that it is going to get more common and happen globally....
Pretty sure it was illegal in the back in the day when each nations had public-owned banks, like here in Australia with the Commonwealth Bank. Infrastructure and nation building was it's basic remit, it was run at-cost and every citizen had a right to a private account. Pretty sure that's the basic idea but it was broken up and greedily sold off into privatisation a bit before my time.
It was a government-run enterprise. Who knows if a government could be trusted to set up a proper private citizen's bank in this day and age? Would need sufficient oversight and transparent dealings (blockchain). Not sure but I think New Zealand have done a decent job with their postal banks not too long ago.
I guess really it's up to 'us' — the owners, users and defenders of open source, decentralised software and hardware infrastructure! Looking forward to the day I can buy and sell products and necessities with HBD...