To Anonymous who posted on 5:09 AM, January 08, 2010
The bank caters to the immigrant community, so it would appear to be the kind that would be a stickler to positive ID authentication. They must be very wary of fraud. A fax can be faked so that may be the reason why they won't accept it. Now, the notarization requirement is a bit new I must say. That kind of stuff usually is tied to brokerage accounts or legal documents processing. I don't recall a bank requiring that in order to redeem a CD, but then I rarely do business with small community banks. Since you are outside the US, that would be a problem with trying to obtain an affidavit. I guess it is required in order to cover their butt in case of an issue later. You might be stuck between a rock and hard place on this one.