Business account funds have been limited!

bunty1969

Has anyone else experienced this issue with their business account?  Account funds have been removed because the bank wants you to complete a standard/routine form to update your account details - I hasten to add without informing you first?  7:30am this morning I see that my TSB business account balance is correctly just under £7k in credit, but available funds have been slashed overnight to £3,500 with £30 pending.  You can imagine my alarm/horror - I thought someone had undertaken some fraudulent activity and was emptying my account.  Busy day ahead, had to prioritise this, heart pounding.  Managed to navigate the TSB convoluted customer service telephone service (third attempt) to find out no, it's not an error, TSB took £3,500 out of my account because I had "not completed a routine form" - I've been a sole trader customer of theirs for 11 years. No change of address or contact details, not under investigation, no suspicious transactions, I had apparently not completed a routine form requesting updated information pertaining to my business. It would have been nice to know beforehand!  According to the parrot on the other side of the telephone, they had "repeatedly" tried to contact me - emails and phonecalls - I can only assume this is an automatic throw away comment and cheap attempt to deflect responsibility on to me.  I checked, I had received two emails from them since September - nothing in there indicating any urgent requirement to update my business details (which don't need updating!), and no missed calls or messages saying "Mrs Heath we need to speak to you urgently". In fact no discernible attempt to contact me to let me know what they were planning to do before they took £3,500 out of my account.  I am livid, terrified, distressed and stressed that they can do this - talk about disproportionate action or appropriate customer service consideration.  There were no messages on my business banking account browser interface or app - they can see I am making transactions regularly - why not leave an urgent message there, why not try and telephone me? A simple message "Mrs Heath we need to talk to you urgently" would have sufficed at least given me a heads up. Any advice out there - wondering if one of the personal finance journalists would like to hear about bullying customers and pushing boundaries of acceptable behaviour?  Given the last two years so many self-employed have been through, I really, really don't need this eating into my precious time and mental health.  By the way, the form was well hidden on their website under (a KYB acronym search term) and only leads me to another form that I have yet to receive, I still don't know when they are going to restore my account and replace my stolen funds.  Not a nice position to be in - I keep looking at my incredibly deflated account and panicking.  I am done with them.    

Jeremy535897

HSBC have frozen business bank accounts without warning, with the first intimation being suppliers complaining that direct debits have been cancelled, for the same reason. This is the advice the financial ombudsman gives to banks. If they have not followed it, ask them to explain why.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/banking-and-payments/bank-account-closures#:~:text=Businesses that provide bank accounts,just as their customers are.&text=You shouldn't close an,account without giving reasonable notice.

Sandtree

bunty1969 said:
By the way, the form was well hidden on their website under (a KYB acronym search term) and only leads me to another form that I have yet to receive, I still don't know when they are going to restore my account and replace my stolen funds.  Not a nice position to be in - I keep looking at my incredibly deflated account and panicking.  I am done with them.    

Are you sure it isnt KYC - Know Your Customer - which are fairly standard FS anti-money laundering stuff?

Theres been a fairly big push recently, probably tied to a number of big fines issued to some banks, HSBC got all arsy with us for our business account of 10 years with them due to the fact my wife's name changed when we got married and they had failed to spot the change of name notification on Companies House. It appears they are running through almost every account etc based on the size of the setup (a third party) they have running it all.

Taking money out of your account seems very odd... HSBC said they'd be closing ours if we failed to respond but it gave 3 months notice.

MattMattMattUK

This partially sounds like Know Your Customer, but you would have had to ignore a lot of correspondence and attempts to contact you to get to the stage of them taking any concrete action. However that also would not be the action you have had, as others have said KYC would involve them giving you multiple notices over several months and a final 14 day notice, then closing your account and sending you a cheque for the balance. 

My guess is if they have removed £3,500 from your account, is that some fraud flags have been triggered. Have you had any payments in that are either for £3,500, or total £3,500 from one customer? The available funds could either be a payment has been recalled for fraud, a cheque has bounced, an outgoing payment pending etc. Did you take out a BBL?

bunty1969

Thanks for responding - very useful to understand the context of other banks actions. Definitely KYB - as I had to input the acronym to actual find this vital but buried form - assuming Know Your Business is the variation. The two phone calls with agents confirmed nothing suspicious with my account, no flags at all - which there definitely aren’t, standard transactions for a soul trader soft tissue therapist and Pilates instructor who has been a customer fir 12 years - they said it was because I haven’t completed a “routine” form to update my business details. A routine form I knew nothing about, I would love to think they had given me the courtesy of several chances to complete a form but I have had nothing, nada - not one email (two non-related since September), letter (statements reach me no problems) or phone call (yes my contact details are correct) relating to this urgent, essential, can’t be ignored form/information grab. A 14 day notice would have been nice, any heads up would have been nice. “Odd” is definitely one word to describe my situation. Heavy-handed, disproportional, bullying, threatening, beyond acceptable banking practice, abuse of power are several others I could happily throw into the mix along with a few choice expletives. How very dare they. By the way, other form completed now, account still not restored though. I continue to wait and hope. 

bunty1969

I’ve been a customer since 2011 by the way. 11 years not 12 as I posted above. 

Sandtree

bunty1969 said:

agents confirmed nothing suspicious with my account, no flags at all - which there definitely aren’t, standard transactions for a soul trader 

I'd be suspicious of anyone saying they trade souls!!      

c-m

OP did you ever get this sorted? I know TSB loves their paperwork. I remember when I applied for a business account and they sent a 20 page document to fill out. Promptly threw it away and opened a business account online with Santander overnight. 

The KYC/KYB is interesting, as I think a lot of banks took on customers without doing enough checks, then panicked and started freezing accounts left right and center. I've known it happen to a good number of people. Even two of my accounts, whilst I didn't have an account frozen or limited, I was asked to supply additional information about myself, mostly security related stuff. 

Good luck

P.S never only have a single account. Banks are basically dumb pipes with little added value. Treat them as such and have multiple back ups. 

penners324

Lodge a complaint, escalate to the FOS.

Go to a financial journalist as well.

Then switch to a different bank