In this a universal(ly) (annoying) banking policy??

pinkdalek

Perhaps the staff colleague is just trying to take a genuine interest in you as your customer as opposed to treating you like a number.

Maybe they were thinking you could pay for the item a different way eg debit card, bank transfer, bankers draft which is safer than carrying a lump sum of cash.

If a fraudster called into the bank, withdrew funds out of your account willy nilly no questions asked would you be satisfied with the bank's procedures?

The colleague also has to adhere to anti-money laundering regulations. Failure for them to follow such procedures can result in disciplinaries, dismissal and even inprisonment.

iereboy

Lovely old lady comes in and says can I have £2000. You look at her previous history and see she has never withdrawn more than £50 for as far as you can see. Quite wealthy judging by her balance. She smiles and asks again. You ask her what it is for. It pains you more than her asking what she is doing with HER own money. She replies none of your business! You ask her again - a bit more firmer. She bursts into tears. You take her into a private room and find out yobs are holding her dog and wont give it back till she pays. You call the Police, they deal with it, she gets her dog back and keeps her £2000. No thanks.


Old man comes in, asks for £1000. You again look at the previous history and see he has never withdrawn more £10 for a long time. Which he draws every 2 days! You ask him what he wants it for. Again, you get mind your f**king business. You persist and then he tells you he is paying for a car. Fair enough. You dig more, thinking - why on earth would the DVLA let someone who is clearly not fit for driving have a licence. What kind of car you ask? He says its an Aston Martin. You think yeah right. Again, take him into a room and ask him more questions. You find out he's been scammed by some idiot claiming to be from a charity trying to help people fufill their dreams. Apparently all the customer ever wanted was an Aston Martin and never had one. You again call the Police - who never actually come. Eventually the man calls his son who takes his home and berates his dad for being an idiot. No thanks.


As odd as this may sound, banks have a duty of care and its part of KYC.


Not taking action to prevent fraud, missing obvious signs of money laundering can lead to you losing your job.


Its also to keep your manager off your back and identify ways to sell.

KingElvis

I would say you're buying a solid gold toilet.

Degenerate

Is it ok to say you're spending it on drugs and hookers if that's the truth?

maninthestreet

How can withdrawal of funds from an account be related to money laundering? The money is already sitting in an account.

opinions4u

maninthestreet wrote: »

How can withdrawal of funds from an account be related to money laundering? The money is already sitting in an account.

It's called "Layering".

In the course of layering, there is the first attempt at concealment or disguise of the source of the ownership of the funds by creating complex layers of financial transactions designed to disguise the audit trail and provide anonymity. The purpose of layering is to disassociate the illegal monies from the source of the crime by purposely creating a complex web of financial transactions aimed at concealing any audit trail as well as the source and ownership of funds.

ab7167

I told them once that I was spending it on Russian hookers (I'm female..) She just sniggered and handed over the money. Not true, sadly I need a whole new roof and this was part payment for the builder.

FireWyrm

My husband has a 93 year old grandmother. She's a dear old lady and I seemed to be the only one in the family who ever took a moment to speak to her. She was also extremely well off due to a thrifty lifestyle for the best part of a century. She moved into protected accommodation near to the parents in law (her son) and began to get lots of letters. I suspect allot was to do with Nigerian 419 scammers and even more to do with dodgy churches, but they fleeced the old lady of thousands. In talking to my FIL, I found out that she would regulary send cash in the post which was withdrawn from the bank. Despite repeated visits to the bank by my FIL, he and the bank had to watch helplessly as she was mugged day in day out. Eventually, he managed to get power of attourney over her money and protect it, but even on the day she moved into a home, the scammers were ringing her every minute trying to sqeeze another drop.

The point of this story....I dislike being asked the question, but if the bank is prevented from asking such questions, theft from the vulnerable will continue. It was in fact the BANK who informed my FIL of what was going on at (I understand) professional risk to themselves. The police are worse than useless and thank god someone with half a brain was bothered enough to help this old lady before she was completely destitute.

hcb42

A similar tale happened to a vulnerable lady I know. She was scammed of her life savings over a period, by so called "builders" who would drive her to the bank and wait for her.

dzug1

powned wrote: »

a) My money is none of their business despite what they may think.

Unfortunately it IS their business whatever you may think.

Governments have made it that way, not the banks. I doubt if they are particularly happy with it.