Why do the Halifax want to know where my money is from?

PaulW922

I can confirm the above is correct - although information about suspect cash goes to a central point and is farmed out to the appropriate agency - it could be HMRC but equally the Police or SOCA.

In practice however provided you as the customer gives a proper answer the info probably doesn't go anywhere beyond the bank. It is quite normal to be asked this kind info and there is no reason for anyone not to answer - unless you are a criminal of course! And before Tony Blair or Gordon Brown gets blamed for this one, the regime was brought in by the Conservative Government and refined under both that one and the current Government.

This practice is common across much of the world - it isn't just the UK.

Bear in mind too that without our stable financial sector (more exchange business goes through London than any other financial centre) this country would be in big trouble - we don't make anything much these days!

regularsaver1

ejones999 wrote: »

I hand it to manager - he/she will 'take a view' about whether to take it further (has to sign the form with comments) if manager decides no further action it gets filed in branch, if not then off it goes to the monitoring section together with details of the transaction requested.

we don't report to manager because its their personal opinion whether it should be referred, and so if I had a suspicion in the first place it should always be sent up regardless

i get some kind of acknowledgement of receipt

regularsaver1

The questioning is protecting customers also and their money

LittleVoice

regularsaver1 wrote: »

The questioning is protecting customers also and their money

RS1 - How does it do this?

Only thing I could think of was a situation like a "gangster" giving me a cheque for £900,000 for a £200,000 house and my later refunding him the £700,000 less a percentage handling fee? But then telling the cashier it was for a house I had sold would surely sound feasible - unless they go on to ask further questions and follow all the transactions.

jonesMUFCforever

Is it the norm that you pay in £900k on a regular basis - the probable answer is no - so expect to be questioned about where the momey comes from.
So Mr customer you have to sold your house and got a good price for it - would you like me to take a change of address from you - where are you living now? - What would your answer be - is your demeanour now shifty/ are you hesitating? Would you say no sorry I don't have a new address or I don't know where I'm living now (after paying in £900k)??
Little things we may pick up - maybe nothing but certainly in this scenario both sides of the transaction would be checked thoroughly BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNTS and if you then wanted to transfer £700k out again it would raise more suspicion.

stiffnuts69

ejones999 wrote: »

Is it the norm that you pay in £900k on a regular basis - the probable answer is no - so expect to be questioned about where the momey comes from.
So Mr customer you have to sold your house and got a good price for it - would you like me to take a change of address from you - where are you living now? - What would your answer be - is your demeanour now shifty/ are you hesitating? Would you say no sorry I don't have a new address or I don't know where I'm living now (after paying in £900k)??
Little things we may pick up - maybe nothing but certainly in this scenario both sides of the transaction would be checked thoroughly BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNTS and if you then wanted to transfer £700k out again it would raise more suspicion.

What if you have two houses one you own and let out and the other you live in.

You would say I sold a property I own but live at my usual address.

You don't have to live at a property you own.

Somerset

Curious about something

I transferred online large sum of money into my Lloyds account - no questions.
I submitted a large bacs transfer request ( to solicitors ) by hand to Lloyds - I was quizzed by staff - why, what for etc.
I received large sum of money from solicitors into my Lloyds account (bacs ) - No questions.
I transferred this large sum from Lloyds to ING by d/d - no questions from either Lloyds or INg.

So the only time I was asked anything, was when I was physically in the bank talking to a Lloyds member of staff. No phone calls on my machine re the other transactions.

So either a) online transactions aren't verified by the banks or b) these transactions are automatically 'reported' as suspicious by the banks without recourse to a customer explanation. Which is it ?

Waiting now for a swat team to kick down my front door !!!!

masonic

You're only going to be quizzed by Lloyds when (a) You are doing the transferring using your Lloyds account and (b) no existing links exist between the two accounts involved in the transfer. So, you'd only expect to be asked about the transfer you indeed were asked about. The others weren't done by you from Lloyds.

Edit: In fact, I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to do a large value online transfer from your Lloyds account to an unknown account. You'd have to do it in person or phone up for the very reason that they would want to question you.

Dylanwing

It is all to do with money laundering regulations. They are so cack handed that you waste loads of time worrying about legitimate transactions, and the true money laundering operations have no problem in by-passing them. It's great when doing share offers as you are supposed to verify all third-party cheques over a certain amount - And how many people use Building Society cheques?? Don't worry, I expect money-laundering will soon be de-criminalised!

stiffnuts69

Dylanwing wrote: »

It is all to do with money laundering regulations. They are so cack handed that you waste loads of time worrying about legitimate transactions, and the true money laundering operations have no problem in by-passing them. It's great when doing share offers as you are supposed to verify all third-party cheques over a certain amount - And how many people use Building Society cheques?? Don't worry, I expect money-laundering will soon be de-criminalised!

Exactly

A person who is going to launder money will not deposit a large sum into an account there far to clever for that.

The OP mentioned £4000 deposit hardly big money worth laundering through a bank.