The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Banking Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Uptown Bank including the domain uptownbanking.com. Uptown Bank purports itself to be a “federally chartered savings bank headquartered in the United States” through the domain uptownbanking.com. Uptown Bank does not appear to hold the proper certificate of authority to operate a National Bank or Association, nor does it appear to hold any certificate of authority to operate a bank from any state. It would appear that Uptown Bank does not hold the authority to operate a bank in the United States.
DFI urges consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services. In addition, do not give out personal identifying information such as banking information, Social Security Number, copies of your passport, or any other sensitive information to anyone online or to a website that you do not know is legitimate. Finally, when considering doing business with any financial service provider, consumers should make sure that the entity is properly chartered/licensed. In the banking space, consumers can verify the charter status of a bank through use of the FDIC’s bank find tool BankFind Suite: Find Institutions by Name & Location (fdic.gov).