New request for personal info from Selftrade

spinbuster

Well done everybody. Selftrade has been forced back over the line it should never have crossed in the first place i.e. the line where information to meet regulatory requirements ends and beyond which abuse of the regulations (i.e. phishing for unnecessary personal data) starts.

spinbuster

I am sure all Selftrade customers will welcome the recent email from Alex Buffet withdrawing the requirement for Source of Wealth information. His reference to “Know Your Customer (KYC)” originates from the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) which provides money laundering guidance for the financial sector. (See:- http://www.jmlsg.org.uk/what-is-jmlsg).
Replacing the term “Know Your Customer” by “Police Your Customer” is probably a better representation of what is required by the regulations, which originate from the EU.

vigman

spinbuster wrote: »

Well done everybody. Selftrade has been forced back over the line it should never have crossed in the first place i.e. the line where information to meet regulatory requirements ends and beyond which abuse of the regulations (i.e. phishing for unnecessary personal data) starts.

Well, I have just had an email from Selftrade today, 29th July 2014, asking for bank statement and personal details!?

This is exactly the type of email I have advised people to run a mile from in my previous job as an IT Manager.

Vigman

MagicM

...and the killer line in the email is;

Please can you email a recent copy of your bank statement to [EMAIL="recordsreview@selftrade.co.uk"]recordsreview@selftrade.co.uk[/EMAIL] within 14 days.

... so they want me to send a copy of my bank statement over regular email? Erm, no, I don't think so! They clearly know that email is insecure because they have a 'secure message system' but for some reason we can't use that...

At least they give a snail mail option which I guess is a little bit better, but I'm certainly going to blank out 99% of the info on my bank statement before I send it to them!

Chordeiles

Well, the incompetents started pestering me for my bank statement a few weeks ago, after my ISA had transferred out and there was just the odd dividend waiting to follow it. Never did see if they replied to my "shouty" message because they promptly transferred the remaining balance and closed the account so I can't log on. Good result !

Now they are bothering my wife whose account has stayed open later than mine, apparently because they wanted to keep it open beyond the next quarter date so they could dock her one last "inactivity fee". Well she won that battle, they seemed to agree that having paid out big wads of money to transfer out, the inactivity fee should not have been charged. So there is just the last £10.50 waiting to transfer out to her new ISA provider, her bank account will NEVER AGAIN be used in a Selftrade context, but they have insisted (by both regular email and by secure message) that she sends her bank statement.

Equally "shouty" message from her so far received no response in 24 hours. Bungling idiots, we are really glad to be rid of them. Not seen ineptitude like this since I was with the Halifax.

vigman

Can anyone please recommend a good share service to transfer to? I make few if any transactions in a year and just need a share holding account.

TIA

Vigman

Chordeiles

Well the kind folks at Selftrade have "let off" my wife from sending her bank statement. This morning she got the demand in the post (with reply paid envelope, how thoughtful !), but it actually crossed a reply in her secure message box, as follows:

Dear Mrs *****,

Thank you for your message and please accept our apologies.

I have referred your case to our compliance department who have confirmed that a bank statement will not be required given your circumstances. As for the £10.50 outstanding on the ISA I have requested that it is passed onto ***** and a closure requested has been submitted as well

Once again I apologise for any confusion that this may have caused but please do not hesitate to come back to me if you require any further assistance going forward.

Kind regards,

Sam Kennison
Customer Service Administrator

Well it seems that the account being effectively closed is a valid reason for not sending the statement.

But wait a minute, this morning the postman also brought me a snotty reminder that they are still waiting to see my bank statement (again with reply-paid envelope). They also say they sent an electronic message, which I'm not able to see because my login doesn't work, presumably because they closed the account (like I wanted) some weeks ago.

The threat (if bank statement not sent) is that large withdrawals may be delayed by a request for further information. But that's not likely to scare me as my balance is zero.

It's not clear to me if a transfer to another broker would also be delayed by an incomplete "Records Review" process. But if I had't already made my exit, that's exactly what I would be trying now.

It's no good blaming EU regulations, we use two other brokers and three banks, never had any bother like this from any of them !

ducky2004

Selftrade has launch a round 3 about 2 weeks ago, giving customers until today (Friday) to comply or else they threaten to freeze the account on Monday 26/10/14.

http://boards.fool.co.uk/i-thought-the-records-review-13100920.aspx?sort=whole#13102261

These are people who have already complied with Round 1 but for some reason were asked to do it again.

While Selftrade keeps on eye on its AML obligation, it appears to completely forget about its TCF obligations.

Let's hope it will not be necessary to start another round of complain next week.

NonGeographicalMan

Long ago put in an official complaint about Selftrade's request for irrelevant personal data and made it clear that I would deadlock it and take it to the Ombudsman. As a result of which all requests for me to supply any bank account or other personal data were withdrawn as was the threat the account would be locked to withdrawals.

However now have had new threats from Selftrade to accept Equiniti's terms and conditions for their Self Select ISA by Nov 14th or move elsewhere or else they will shut down my ISA and return the money to me.

So their bovver boy approach to dealing with their customers continues but as they are exiting the business anyway its quite hard to punish them further for their misbehaviour. Their staff without exceptions always have been and always will be A Load of Extremely Thick East End Barrow Boys and Girls.

ducky2004

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Long ago put in an official complaint about Selftrade's request for irrelevant personal data and made it clear that I would deadlock it and take it to the Ombudsman. As a result of which all requests for me to supply any bank account or other personal data were withdrawn as was the threat the account would be locked to withdrawals.

However now have had new threats from Selftrade to accept Equiniti's terms and conditions for their Self Select ISA by Nov 14th or move elsewhere or else they will shut down my ISA and return the money to me.

So their bovver boy approach to dealing with their customers continues but as they are exiting the business anyway its quite hard to punish them further for their misbehaviour. Their staff without exceptions always have been and always will be A Load of Extremely Thick East End Barrow Boys and Girls.

Hi NonGeographicalman,

Selftrade has an obligation under the treating customer fairly rules which has to be balanced against its other interest/obligation. I am surprised the FCA appears to have done nothing to remind them of their other TCF obligations.

To be fair, it looks like their customer service team and compliance team maybe the worse offender here. Their operation seems to works fine for the many years I use them.

The blame should always go to the management as many of the front line staffs are likely to be constrained by the environment they work in..

The problem with transfer is that the process will take at a minimum 5-6 weeks and if things go wrong, it can go on for months which is not fun at all. The current account transfer system has been beefed up significantly recently but nominee account transfer process is still in the stone age.