Bank Workers

[Deleted User]

Dear Users,
During the lockdown my family we’re arguing about whether managers or tellers can access your account after you leave or peak into people’s account to see what is happening.
On the internet it says that if the people at the bank know your name and address or DOB they can enter and see what’s going on. They don’t need security that is only for when the public want access.
It also says that account activity is only tracked for high profile people so ordinary civilian accounts can be accessed without bringing an alert.
Are there any bankers who can weigh in?

Kidder81

I’d imagine they could in theory access accounts this way, probably in the same way Police can access your PNC records. However in both these cases I don’t think anyone who values their job and possibly their freedom would be daft enough to do it.

[Deleted User]

but say if someone accessed the bank account of a customer after they left. How would the banks systems know what they’re doing. They wouldn’t be able to pick it up. They would just assume the banker was looking at the customers transactions for them or checking balances.

[Deleted User]

I have seen some bankers just search names and a list of accounts come up from which they can click. They were looking for me but it came up with a simple search

[Deleted User]

Then because I verified my identity at the till they didn’t ask again. They didn’t even need to.

born_again

dragonbellpink728 said:

but say if someone accessed the bank account of a customer after they left. How would the banks systems know what they’re doing. They wouldn’t be able to pick it up. They would just assume the banker was looking at the customers transactions for them or checking balances.

They know. You only have certain rights to be in a customers account, depending on your role. Users are audited on what they have been doing. Someone constantly going into accounts they have no right too, is going to find that the door will be held open for them on the way to the police van.

jonesMUFCforever

Looking at somebody's account without it being part of their job is a sackable offence.

veryintrigued

Colleagues who have direct access to the raw data through database queries rather than front end applications is where the power is.

I.e. IT

blue.peter

I don't have any direct knowledge of bank procedures, but wouldn't expect them to differ greatly in principle from the insurance company where I worked for many years.

When I was in admin, I had system access that allowed me to track down customers and view their policy records. This was fairly simple matter of entering the appropriate query - all that was needed was knowledge of the relevant syntax, and this was taught as part of early training. I could also make alterations as necessary. HOWEVER:

1. before anything of this sort could be done, I had to log in to the relevant computer system;
2. the system logged all actions undertaken;
3. it was made very clear to us that abuse of access was a disciplinary offence (penalties varying with severity, up to and including termination);
4. I know that I was always careful to lock my computer whenever I left my desk (even to go to the loo), and I never let anyone else know my password. I assume that others were equally careful: we were told very firmly that we should do this.
   

I am aware of one or two staff having found themselves in court, with the IT system audit trail being used to show what they'd done and when. (The cases that I know went this far involved staff diverting unclaimed policy maturity funds.)

Any manager with cause to suspect that anyone was doing anything inappropriate would have no difficulty in getting the matter investigated. My employer had a small team dedicated to looking into anything dodgy. It was mostly staffed by ex-policemen. And I know that they did their job effectively: I was peripherally involved* in a fraud investigation that ended with a salesman getting a six-month jail sentence. (Amusingly, I heard that when he was released, he went to his former manager and asked for his old job back.)

*I provided technical knowledge about the pension contract at the centre of the case.

Coffeekup

I'm with Barclays and nationwide,  everytime I go into their branches they can't log into my accounts unless I punch my pin into a little card reader that gives an 8 digit code. I also have one of each at home so I can log in to my accounts.

Dunno about other banks building societies tho.

blue.peter

Coffeekup said:

I'm with Barclays and nationwide,  everytime I go into their branches they can't log into my accounts unless I punch my pin into a little card reader that gives an 8 digit code. I also have one of each at home so I can log in to my accounts.

Dunno about other banks building societies tho.

There must be a system for accessing accounts without the customer present as well, though. For example, someone has to be able to deal with change of address notifications sent in by post. There will surely be other things for which it's needed.