Yes, he once taught illegally and Scottish accent is hard to understand for English learners. He reported about similar problems a few years back. Bank people in China are often incompetent when it comes to foreign matters such as bank transfer or either receiving or sending money via Western Union. But as the problems seem to continue for him, it's quite likely that he failed to do the preliminary paperwork. Or he did not shout loud enough in Chinese to put unwilling bank clerks in their place. I did the same once in Hangzhou after I felt pissed off by a person not properly dealing with my request to send money from China by Western Union for a third time. I wasn't very nice then and told them something about their non-professionalism in a loud voice so that they called the bank manager, and then it was suddenly sorted out in minutes. Wonders may even happen in China...

Chinese don't like to lose face, especially when a foreigner shouts to them in Chinese because of their incompetence and unwillingness. After my comments on their incompetence, I was asking them if they had their training in a monkey house and were fed with bananas during that training for their job at the bank. That medicine worked incredibly well as I finally got what I wanted after a lot of hassle.

They must have twigged that you've been teaching illegally in China for years and years!