Bank Account Attestation

marlyn_2

We were withdrawing money from our pension fund in another country to buy a property in UK as we are now retired. The pension fund requested that we provide a Bank attestation which is - evidence that where we asked the money to be sent to was where we are the beneficiaries of that account. Apparently to protect us from fraud and comply with financial regulations within Europe. I asked Santander UK for this attestation but they refused only offering us a bank reference for a cost of 10 pounds which is no good at all. Luckily, our Spanish Bank account were happy to supply a attestation certificate (free of charge). Do UK Banks provide an Attestation certificate or is this just a Santander problem?

jonesMUFCforever

I have never heard of it to be honest.
Would not a statement of account showing your name address and account number not be sufficient?


The problems with what you are asking is that should it fall into the wrong hands they could be held liable for any losses caused fraudulently.

Archi_Bald

I have never heard of a bank attestation either but I have had a bank reference, for almost exactly the purpose you said you needed the confirmation: that I have a current account with the given bank, and what the IBAN etc numbers of the account are.

grumbler

Can a bank statement with your names on it do the job? You can ask Santander branch to certify it somehow.

DevCoder

You should ask the bank for them to apply "legalisation" , ie a form of certification.

Attestation tends to be the European usage.

marlyn_2

My European pension fund company were very specific in their requirement details, oddly we received "attestations" from our Luxembourg and Spanish bank accounts we have so we just thought Santander were being quite difficult. Many thanks for your responses.

jonesMUFCforever

krisdorey wrote: »

You should ask the bank for them to apply "legalisation" , ie a form of certification.

Attestation tends to be the European usage.

What is this please, I have never heard this term either.

DevCoder

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

What is this please, I have never heard this term either.

https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised

agrinnall

krisdorey wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised

Sounds like getting a document notarised, but by the government rather than by a notary. I must admit I've never heard of it before either.

grumbler

krisdorey wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised

It's certainly not the same as krisdorey implied that some 'legalisation' can be applied by the bank.

agrinnall wrote: »

Sounds like getting a document notarised, but by the government rather than by a notary. I must admit I've never heard of it before either.

No. E.g. for a bank statement:

Your bank statement can only be legalised if it has been certified.
You can also provide a certified photocopy of your document.
Certifying documents

If you provide a certified document, it must be certified in the UK by a solicitor or ‘notary public’.

Getting an original certified by a notary in UK is almost 'mission impossible'.