Opening HiSave Account with ICICI

Kayball

Hi.
This is my first posting but have been lurking for at least 12 months.
Tried to open a HiSave account with ICICI after it being recommended on this site and paying 6% AER gross.
Logged in to their site on Friday, gave all details, including my exsisting bank details and postal address and was told they would contact me with further instruction when my details had been verified. I expected to be asked to send a cheque from my current account made payable to me, as I had done this to open an account with ING.
Received an email today asking me to post verified copies of my passport and recent utility bill. (accepted verification signatures offered less options than for a UK passport!)
I was furious! I appreciate there are money laundering requirements but this is a linked account back to my current account, which I have held for 35years plus, and I have been at my current address for 30 years. Opening an account with ING did not entail providing these details so why ICICI.
I have no intention of proceeding further with this aggro for an extra bit of interest. Has anyone else been asked for this type of documentary proof and is this normal nowadays, even for this type of linked savings account?
Regards
Kayball

chesky369

the regulations are getting tighter all the time - I had to provide this information for ICEsave when I opened my account with them about six months ago.

apples1

I provided them with exactly that last week as I am also part way through opening a Hisave a/c.

nilrem_2

Would not be much good me applying then, I don't even have a passport!:eek:

apples1

nilrem wrote: »

Would not be much good me applying then, I don't even have a passport!:eek:

neither do I (it's expired) that's why I used my driving licence instead - which is also accepted. It's not really that difficult. One photocopy of my d. licence & one of my water bill, got them signed by my neighbour and popped them in the post. Job done!

londonsaver

I've just got this email too. The people who can certify them are: any bank/building society official, solicitor, accountant, commissioner of oaths, justice of the peace, legal secretary, member of parliament, police officer or an officer of the armed services.

I don't know anyone who could do this! For my passport I could at least ask a teacher or doctor. Pretty frustrating.

nilrem_2

londonsaver wrote: »

I've just got this email too. The people who can certify them are: any bank/building society official, solicitor, accountant, commissioner of oaths, justice of the peace, legal secretary, member of parliament, police officer or an officer of the armed services.

I don't know anyone who could do this! For my passport I could at least ask a teacher or doctor. Pretty frustrating.

This is one thing that annoys me TBH it's discriminatory, it's as if they are saying that the above are all upright, honest law abiding people whilst other folk are not, there are plenty of crooked judges, police officers, MP.s and no doubt a few in all of the other professionals listed above, why not accept the word of an ordinary mortal?

In any case criminals or con men will just forge a siggie anyway so again it's honest people who are inconvenienced!

allanhamer

The ML regulations actually refer to guidance notes issued by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group https://www.jmlsg.org.uk . The actual regulatory framework laid down by the FSA points mainly to the guidance notes issued by the JMLSG. While these guidance notes are purely that (guidance) it would be looked upon favourably in a court of law if an institution adhere to these guidance notes.

The guidance does actually state that companies should not refuse services to people who cannot provide documentary standard evidence to prove their identity. In this day and age however most people have a driving license, passport etc so its rarely a big problem albeit it is an inconvenience.

The problem now is that companies cannot rely on another financial institution carrying out Anti ML checks, therefore, all companies are forced to do their own checks at the expense of inconvenience to the customer.

Society we live in now days I guess

Sorry for the long post and more than likely pointing out facts that people already were aware of but sometimes its nice to know why we need to do the things we do now days when dealing with financial institutions!

Cheers

Allan

MiserlyMartin

Strange, because they didn't request any of this from me when I opened Hi-Save and Icesave accounts. I do have a passport though, prehaps they did it electronically?

allanhamer

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

Strange, because they didn't request any of this from me when I opened Hi-Save and Icesave accounts. I do have a passport though, prehaps they did it electronically?

Some institutions can gain information from information providers to clear people re Anti ML checks. Electoral role info etc. Not everyone can be cleared using these services though hence extra checks for some people.

nilrem_2

Society we live in now days I guess

In this day and age where we are watched by Cameras all day long where every time we phone the people we speak to seem to know more about us than we do ourselves and even supermarkets know how old we are, what we buy and where we go one would think that we all had a unique 20 digit number that could easily be referenced for ID purposes! :eek: