Investment Property Gift Rule?

[Janel Lynch]

My spouse and I have decided to purchase our first investment property but planned to have only her name on the loan.  As part of the down payment, I moved $15k that was saved in a separate savings account (by depositing $1500 from our joint account per month) back to our joint account. Now the bank is saying that money cannot be used as part of the down payment because that money is considered a “gift” as her name is not on the savings account. I don’t understand how moving money from one of my accounts to another of my accounts constitutes a gift? Especially since the money originated from the joint account... does anyone have advice regarding this? Thank you.