The conversion was just a special one-time thing. See links below for explanation. I'm not sure if we can offer conversion like this as a permanent service, but if so, it's something we'll consider doing sometime in the future.

 https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/290799.msg5255098#msg5255098

https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/290799.msg5375021#msg5375021

https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/290799.msg5437420#msg5437420

I think we need to do more to promote liquidity. I'll have to check on the thinking about a maker-taker model and other promotional offers, since it hasn't been discussed in a while.

I've been waiting to get my money out of Kraken since January 24th.  After two failed USD Withdrawal attempts I was advised by the management to convert my balance to Euros because the Euro wires go out lickety split.  So I did that, and have now been waiting two weeks for a Euro bank wire that still hasn't been sent.  I opened a support ticket and was advised this is the fault of FIDOR Bank which is still processing the outbound bank wires for February, and if I'm lucky my wire will be sent by the end of March.

On the board here we've seen lots of examples of people in the SEPA area whose wires come in and out of Kraken in a reasonable time (less than three business days).

From this I conclude that Kraken has had serious problems with their US and European bank when it comes to processing bank wires outside of SEPA, but the SEPA interface must be automated.

Since my EURO withdrawal is to a bank outside the SEPA area, it is being processed by hand by the bank, and there is clearly a backlog of several weeks in processing those outbound wires.

Kraken advertises on their site "fast deposits and withdrawals".  I feel that given their abysmal record on that point, they should remove that claim because it is dishonest to claim "fast deposits and withdrawals" when withdrawals outside of SEPA will take weeks.

If Kraken can only deliver good service in the European Union then perhaps they should limit their customers to the European Union or else make it exceedingly clear on their site that deposits and withdrawals from outside the EU may take weeks to months to be processed.

kraken on hold my litecoin last 7 days. I'm desperate i really need my momey
ticket : 22083 and 22489

@bebouill and gonenutty:

Sorry for the delay. Ok, I'll make sure that these get assigned to agents ASAP

@kendo451:
I agree, wires to Non-SEPA countries have taken way too long and there is currently a backlog. I am really sorry for the long delay. It is of course a top priority to solve this issue but right now we can't say by when it will be tackled.

@Bonio:
I think I am not lying if I say that many users are very satisfied, other are (understandably) concerned or upset. Maybe you should give it a try? 

Yunus
I am trying it, and have been since Gox shafted me. I am concerned however that people are having to come here for help.

bebouill - we're sorry about this, but if you go over your deposit limit, it's going to be a major inconvenience. I'm checking on your case and we'll get it released as soon as possible.  

Hi Serpens - Your deposit has been released. Sorry about the delay, it was entirely my fault because I missed the screenshot you sent.

Just to clarify, if two or more deposits in the same amount arrive to a user's account within 3 days of each other, all but one of them will be put on hold until we can confirm that they are distinct deposits. So, for example, if 3 deposits of exactly 500 euros arrive to your account within 3 days of each other, two of them will be put on hold. This isn't a bug, but a precaution we've implemented to guard against the possibility of duplicate deposits (where a single deposit is credited to an account more than once). We did have some cases of duplicate deposits a while back. It was an issue with Fidor that has been corrected, but for the time being we have an additional safety protocol on our side as a precaution. The safety protocol will be relaxed later, but for now we're being very careful.

To avoid triggering this safety mechanism, we advise that any deposits sent within 5 business days of each other (or perhaps even more to be extra safe) should be in differnt amounts. As I've said before, it's wise with all bank transfers to send different amounts, even for deposits sent within weeks of each other, so that's it's easier to distinguish the transfers (say if a trace has to be run on one of them).

   

Hi Everyone - Here's an update on bank transfers through Fidor.

Wire withdrawals: This has been an ongoing problem area, with many users experiencing delays of several weeks to over a month (regardless of bank, country, etc.). We're very sorry for the delays. Wire withdrawals require special (i.e. manual) handling for Fidor and they got behind in processing them (Fidor is a small but rapidly growing bank and struggling somewhat with the rate of growth - a situation that we at Kraken are familiar with).

We got an update from Fidor today saying that all outstanding wire withdrawals should have been sent as of March 12th. So wire withdrawals are on their way, but please allow at least 3 business days for them to arrive. Now that they are caught up, Fidor has said that they will do their best to process wire withdrawals in a timely manner. Even so, we are going to raise our estimate for delivery of wire withdrawals to 10 business days and we will monitor the situation in case this estimate needs to be revised.

Less than 3% of our bank transfers are wires, and we highly recommend that users in the EU/EFTA choose SEPA unless their bank is one of the few remaining that doesn't have SEPA enabled yet. But for those who don't have a SEPA option, we are not only working with Fidor, but also on other banking partnerships, to provide more options and better withdrawal service for you.   

All other bank transfers: Users are unlikely to experience a problem with wire deposits, SEPA deposits, or SEPA withdrawals. Setting aside wire withdrawals, our current outstanding tickets for delayed transfers represent less than 0.2% of all transfers processed since launch. But many of the users in this small fraction have been waiting an unacceptably long time to get their issue resolved, so there is a problem. Here also we are working with Fidor to speed the resolution of delayed payments.

One thing we'd like to stress is that in the case of delayed deposits, your sending bank is a resource that should be exploited as much as possible. It's standard in the banking industry that the sending bank is responsible for tracing deposits (because the receiving bank has no way of knowing the path by which the deposit is transferred). The basic procedure for delayed deposits is as follows. First, contact us and give us the information about your deposit that we request. We will then search our bank account in case we received the deposit but were unable to match it with your Kraken account. But once you hear back from us that we haven't been able to find the deposit in our account, please contact your bank and initiate an investigation request on the transfer. In the investigation, your bank should contact our bank. This is all explained by our support agents, but it's worth repeating here.

Overall, we are pleased with the level of service we've been able to provide through our partnership with Fidor. Many users have praised the SEPA transfers for their speed and reliability. But we recognize that there are some problem areas. We are deeply sorry for them and working hard to improve our service.