Banking Error

Lynsey1122

Good afternoon everyone, 

I have a bit of an odd scenario that happened to my pensioner parents over the weekend and just wondered if this had happened to anyone else before (I have searched Google etc but can't seem to find anything!) and if so what course of action was taken. 

Brief backstory - noticed two payments coming out of account on Saturday morning which were not theirs - called bank who suggested fraud and suspended online banking - called Sunday - no update, called Monday AM - no update called again Monday PM and spoke to someone who believed it was the banks error and they had transferred payments from the incorrect account after receiving a phone call transfer request on Thursday/Friday. To cut a long story short a complaint was raised and they have put it down to human error, the monies have been refunded and a small amount of compensation paid. 

My question is would you leave it at that or would you pursue further with the FOS (we now have FOS rights provided with complaint resolution email). Don't get me wrong I am glad they have rectified it etc but I am having a hard time truly understanding how a mistake like this can be made - surely there should be processes in place to stop this happening and surely it should have been noticed? My poor parents have been very distressed over the weekend thinking their bank account had been hacked in some way and living on a fixed income I can understand why they would be so worried (they have been victims of card cloning previously) and they had to continually chase the bank to get an answer - something about this is not sitting right with me and I don't think an apology and a small compensatory payment is quite cutting it for me. 

Thoughts would be appreciated. 

Thank you for taking the time to read

 

MovingForwards

A mistake was made.
The mistake rectified and compensation paid.
They've been put back into the position they were before the mistake and have a bit of extra cash.

Let it go.

Brie

How small was small?  And how did it compare to the payments made?

If someone moved, in error, 2 payments of £10k and the compensation was £5 I'd say that's not adequate.

If someone moved, in error, 2 payments of £5 and the compensation was £20 I'd say that's fine.

But if you (or more correctly your parents) aren't happy with the offer then reject it and say why.  Worst that can happen is the bank will say it's enough and that's it.  At that point if you still think it's inadequate then go to FOS.  But I would tell them this will happen if you aren't satisfied.  The threat of a FOS bill may be enough to get them to increase their offer simply to make you go away.

DE_612183

I'd be looking for more of an explanation - if "someone" phoned the bank the call receiver would have had to have taken the caller through security checks before even they had access to the account and the ability to move funds around.

Of course it depends on which back - if it's one of the big boys the security is much better - but I'd be asking the question:

How did it happen?
How will you stop it happening again?

Section62

DE_612183 said:

I'd be looking for more of an explanation - if "someone" phoned the bank the call receiver would have had to have taken the caller through security checks before even they had access to the account and the ability to move funds around.

Of course it depends on which back - if it's one of the big boys the security is much better - but I'd be asking the question:

How did it happen?
How will you stop it happening again?

It could just be a keying error - at least one bank I've made a phone transaction with recently had a system where the CSA got my account details on one screen and was manually typing the account number in on a different screen to action the transfer.

It would be quite easy for them to key in the wrong account number - it wouldn't have required a breach of security for that to happen.  Just 'luck' that the 'wrong' account number was for an active account with sufficient cleared funds in it.

Whether the OP's parent's bank uses a more robust system or not is another question.

Lynsey1122

Thanks for the helpful comments - much appreciated 😊

RogerBareford

DE_612183 said:

I'd be looking for more of an explanation - if "someone" phoned the bank the call receiver would have had to have taken the caller through security checks before even they had access to the account and the ability to move funds around.

Of course it depends on which back - if it's one of the big boys the security is much better - but I'd be asking the question:

How did it happen?
How will you stop it happening again?

They arn't going to go into details of how their system works and explain to a customer how the error happened or what they are going to do about it.

That's all down to their internal operations that no company will share with customers, nevermind a financial company like a bank.

You have assumed that the banks have a system where they can't access someone's account unless they "go through security" but in reality they can probably access any account and do transactions without any security checks as that would cause issues if they had to go through security to do each transaction on the system.

MalMonroe

I also would leave it as I don't see what the FOS would be able to do now.

I had a terrible mix up with my bank and Tesco credit card last week and also spoke to a complete nincompoop at Tesco on one occasion. Later I spoke to a sensible person at Tesco, a sensible person at my bank and hey bingo, everything was sorted out to everyone's relief. 

Tesco offered me a goodwill payment which I accepted and the matter was closed.

I just think that if you're going to make a fuss and a stink about things, you have to refuse the goodwill gesture and then take further action. 

I'm a pensioner - and also a parent - but I can manage all my financial affairs, am tech savvy and use the internet and my banking apps daily. So really, age has nothing to do with anything. I did have a big worry about the fact that Tesco kept taking unauthorised balances from my account. But everything was rectified. And I received recompense. 

These things happen. 

SevenOfNine

My elderly mum had just under £1000 fraudulently removed from her NatWest a/c. I'd had time to query it but fraud dept were gormless & redirected me to the basic helpline for the following day. By then too late, money went to a Monzo a/c, withdrawn & closed.

Formal complaint, dealt with promptly, money repaid by bank, couple of hundred in compensation. There's never going to be a full explanation, banks simply don't do that!  TBH she/I didn't trust the account after that in case it happened again, so I opened her a new one & transferred all funds, DD's SO's etc.

I think perhaps your parents will feel more secure if you sort out a new a/c, I didn't change her bank as they had dealt with the matter adequately. I don't think you'll gain much by involving FOS.

PS There's no doubt in my mind that the method used to remove money from her a/c ACTIVELY involved bank staff, either theirs or however/wherever cheques are cleared by Nat West & other banks.

soulsaver

Ordinary CS people say they can't access my account without me getting all the security questions right, so how did they in this instance?

I can see why you can make a payment to the wrong person but I cant see how you make a payment from the wrong customers account - surely the CS level bank operative can't access the account without the customers security protocol? 

Call me cynical - this is fraud. And it's internal to to the bank. 

Which bank is it?

For the greater good, submit to the FOS. Maybe they'll audit the bank to understand why their systems/processes allow this to happen.

RogerBareford

soulsaver said:

Ordinary CS people say they can't access my account without me getting all the security questions right, so how did they in this instance?

I can see why you can make a payment to the wrong person but I cant see how you make a payment from the wrong customers account - surely the CS level bank operative can't access the account without the customers security protocol? 

Call me cynical - this is fraud. And it's internal to to the bank. 

Which bank is it?

For the greater good, submit to the FOS. Maybe they'll audit the bank to understand why their systems/processes allow this to happen.

I don't think the banks system works as you imagine. I very much doubt there is anything to block access to certain systems unless they go through verfiying security.

They will have a procedure that states that they must go through security before acessing a customers account but nothing will physically stop them. When i have seen a banks screen years ago; to transfer money just consisted of putting in the account number and sort code of each account and pressing a button.