RBS restricting my Account

Buzby

I've had a letter from RBS (I've had my business account there for 32 years) telling me they will freeze my account yet still charge me £5pm if I do not provide them with answers to a fully populated 4-page verification form asking details they already have.

Come 2nd Sept, the account will be locked, DDs rejected, credits refused but go on to say that all bank charges will continue to accrue. All this from a bank that was so professional it had to be rescued.

Fortunately, I have had the good sense to have accounts elsewhere and will simply vote with my feet. I refuse to be bullied by these toss-pots under the guise of 'Money Laundering' regulations. Considering I'm the customer, and pay them £60+ pa to bank with them each year, their arrogance is nothing short of breathtaking.

Others with Small Business Accounts may want to watch out for this.

Uxb

Grow up............

opinions4u

While I haven't seen the document and it does sound long, they do have a duty to retain "know your customer" information that is regularly updated.

Hominu

Buzby wrote: »

Fortunately, I have had the good sense to have accounts elsewhere and will simply vote with my feet. I refuse to be bullied by these toss-pots under the guise of 'Money Laundering' regulations. Considering I'm the customer, and pay them £60+ pa to bank with them each year, their arrogance is nothing short of breathtaking.

You do know that if you simply refuse and go elsewhere, it may be recorded that you refused to give information as required under current regulations, and your accounts blocked elsewhere as a result?

CLAPTON

Buzby wrote: »

I've had a letter from RBS (I've had my business account there for 32 years) telling me they will freeze my account yet still charge me £5pm if I do not provide them with answers to a fully populated 4-page verification form asking details they already have.

Come 2nd Sept, the account will be locked, DDs rejected, credits refused but go on to say that all bank charges will continue to accrue. All this from a bank that was so professional it had to be rescued.

Fortunately, I have had the good sense to have accounts elsewhere and will simply vote with my feet. I refuse to be bullied by these toss-pots under the guise of 'Money Laundering' regulations. Considering I'm the customer, and pay them £60+ pa to bank with them each year, their arrogance is nothing short of breathtaking.

Others with Small Business Accounts may want to watch out for this.

your complaint is with your MP who have allowed the mopney laundering rules to be implemented

just fill the forms in

grumbler

opinions4u wrote: »

While I haven't seen the document and it does sound long, they do have a duty to retain "know your customer" information that is regularly updated.

Come on...
To fulfill this duty there is absolutely no need to freeze accounts of longstanding customers.
Primitive arrogance springs to mind.

opinions4u

grumbler wrote: »

Come on...
To fulfill this duty there is absolutely no need to freeze accounts of longstanding customers.
Primitive arrogance springs to mind.

Well there is if the customer refuses to provide the information and the alternative would be to face fines in the tens of millions.

My concern is that the document concerned goes beyond money laundering and into collecting marketing information.

Gromitt

grumbler wrote: »

Come on...
To fulfill this duty there is absolutely no need to freeze accounts of longstanding customers.
Primitive arrogance springs to mind.

To be honest though, they are giving you 2 months to fill in the form.

and don't forget that they froze the Queens bank accounts last year, so they clearly don't care about their customers, regardless of who they are.

grumbler

Gromitt wrote: »

To be honest though, they are giving you 2 months to fill in the form.

I have to agree. I misunderstood the OP that they had frozen the account first.

Buzby

The points that are being missed:

1 - if they do not 'know their customer' after 30+ years of trading it is unlikely they ever will.

2 - they supply chargeable services under T&C's that have been agreed. Their letter, which confirms that if you do not accede to their request, they will summarily lock your account WHILST STILL CHARGING FOR SERVICE not supplied is inherently fraudulent.

3 - the information they seek is already on their systems. If anything changes, it remains my responsibility to update (or suffer errors due to any omission). The fact I cannot operate my account due to not filling in a form is draconian and unnecessary - no matter the pointless 'spin' they put on it.

Now, in my book if they refuse to provide the service I contracted for, they are in breach and in no position to impose retrospectively whilst still billing for services. If you are happy with that - then more fool you.

Further, the are not allowed to disclose my financial details to any CRA under the DPA as I refused to permit them to do so (a right allowed to data subjects under the act). Since they could not get round this, I fail to see how this situation is any different.

JuicyJesus

A few points you've missed:

1) It's just a form

2) You are more than welcome to close your accounts if filling in a form upsets your delicate constitution too much

3) All banks are being required to collect this information, including from new customers, so even if you do move banks you'll still be asked more or less the same questions and refusal to provide the information will be seen as detrimental

4) The reason they want you to fill in the form rather than examining transactional activity is because a) you can't necessarily divine the nature of a business and its activities merely from bank account activity and b) they want it in your own words what you do.

5) Complaints about illegality and fraud fade away when the way to continue getting service is to fill in a form and you have two months to do so

6) They may well just close your account rather than continue to charge you and block your account