LBG closing all my accounts on 18th May

AmityNeon

It's frustrating that banks would rather issue lifetime bans without warning, without investigating strange/suspicious transactional behaviour, with little to no chance of a successful appeal. In theory, this could lead to a law-abiding resident with no bad credit history being banned from every major bank account provider in the country, with no recourse to even a basic bank account.

robatwork

AmityNeon said:

It's frustrating that banks would rather issue lifetime bans without warning, without investigating strange/suspicious transactional behaviour, with little to no chance of a successful appeal. In theory, this could lead to a law-abiding resident with no bad credit history being banned from every major bank account provider in the country, with no recourse to even a basic bank account.

And welcome to 2024. As skilled and knowledgeable people leave their professions to be replaced by...let's say a younger more skill-fluid generation...easy beats thorough every time.
Thorough - investigate based on facts and account history. 
Easy - Ban
Thorough - build things properly
Easy - build it (not quite) good enough and hope the side doesn't fall out your aeroplane

born_again

AmityNeon said:

It's frustrating that banks would rather issue lifetime bans without warning, without investigating strange/suspicious transactional behaviour, with little to no chance of a successful appeal. In theory, this could lead to a law-abiding resident with no bad credit history being banned from every major bank account provider in the country, with no recourse to even a basic bank account.

Physical investigation is completed before any closure.

Give the right to go to FOS, any bank closing without good evidence, would be facing censure & fines.

AmityNeon

born_again said:

AmityNeon said:

It's frustrating that banks would rather issue lifetime bans without warning, without investigating strange/suspicious transactional behaviour, with little to no chance of a successful appeal. In theory, this could lead to a law-abiding resident with no bad credit history being banned from every major bank account provider in the country, with no recourse to even a basic bank account.

Physical investigation is completed before any closure.

Give the right to go to FOS, any bank closing without good evidence, would be facing censure & fines.

What does physical investigation entail? The evidence doesn’t even need to be provided to the customer. What constitutes good evidence that warrants lifetime bans without warning, and is independent oversight even required? LBG + Barclays + Metro Bank have all issued lifetime bans to a 19/20 year-old, and no one knows why, other than those legislatively protected from having to reveal those reasons.

easysteve589

What does physical investigation entail? The evidence doesn’t even need to be provided to the customer. What constitutes good evidence that warrants lifetime bans without warning, and is independent oversight even required? LBG + Barclays + Metro Bank have all issued lifetime bans to a 19/20 year-old, and no one knows why, other than those legislatively protected from having to reveal those reasons.

Those rules are due to change though. So all banks will have to increase notice period to 90 days and give clear reasoning for the decision. Although I haven’t read the planned change in detail, I’d assume there are clear exceptions for fraud/money laundering etc. that reserves the right to close without reason and avoid revealing information that could promote future attempts. 

Still no response from LBG on my appeal and hoping for a response this week and will share.

easysteve589

Just a quick update for anyone who may read this. My appeal with the Bank was successful and the closure of all of my accounts was reversed.

Just like the initial closure, the decision to reverse the decision was also lacking any detail as to why it was successful.

If you’re in the same situation, then I would definitely recommend going through the appeals process in branch. It helps if you go into the branch and explicitly ask to complete an appeal rather than explaining your whole situation. The branch colleagues I dealt with had not seen one of these before, and had to review internal processes for how to complete an appeal.

I strongly suspect the reasoning for my account closure was related to transferring of funds and suspected money laundering. As I was able to provide adequate explanation this would lead me to assume this is what has driven the the successful overturning.

If you believe the reason for your account closure is related to a commercial decision, for example, you have switched lots of accounts, then I don’t think I would bother with the appeals process as there’s nothing other than begging that you can do to reverse the decision-making process.

Thank you to those who have posted and replied on this thread. It genuinely made the difference when it came to sorting this out. 

tg99

easysteve589 said:

Just a quick update for anyone who may read this. My appeal with the Bank was successful and the closure of all of my accounts was reversed.

Just like the initial closure, the decision to reverse the decision was also lacking any detail as to why it was successful.

If you’re in the same situation, then I would definitely recommend going through the appeals process in branch. It helps if you go into the branch and explicitly ask to complete an appeal rather than explaining your whole situation. The branch colleagues I dealt with had not seen one of these before, and had to review internal processes for how to complete an appeal.

I strongly suspect the reasoning for my account closure was related to transferring of funds and suspected money laundering. As I was able to provide adequate explanation this would lead me to assume this is what has driven the the successful overturning.

If you believe the reason for your account closure is related to a commercial decision, for example, you have switched lots of accounts, then I don’t think I would bother with the appeals process as there’s nothing other than begging that you can do to reverse the decision-making process.

Thank you to those who have posted and replied on this thread. It genuinely made the difference when it came to sorting this out. 

Thanks for the info. Did you have to complete a specific appeals form submission or something similar? What did the appeal entail ?

easysteve589

 Thanks for the info. Did you have to complete a specific appeals form submission or something similar? What did the appeal entail ?

There isn’t actually an appeal form as such. Instead, the branch is required to email the closure unit with a list of all the accounts you hold (they actually had to write out all the sort codes, account numbers and card numbers) along with details of what each account/card is used for and the source of all regular/recent deposits. Everything is written by the branch on paper or directly into an email.

The closure unit can only be contacted by email via the branch. In order to update me with an outcome the branch offered to call me back. They advise the timescales can be up to 10 working days to hear back. Therfore, I wouldn’t put off going to the branch if you intend to do so.

In my case, the closure unit requested answers to a number of additional questions and the branch called me to obtain these. This was related to further clarifying deposit sources and reasons for transferring funds.

The branch I dealt with advised these closures are relatively rare for them to be dealing with, and as such, a little patience is needed to allow them time to understand the steps to follow. There is an internal process they can look up on their relevant knowledge base which explains each step in detail. 

The process in the branch initially took about 30 minutes for me and end to end took about 10 days between first visiting the branch and receiving a final outcome.

tg99

easysteve589 said:

 Thanks for the info. Did you have to complete a specific appeals form submission or something similar? What did the appeal entail ?

There isn’t actually an appeal form as such. Instead, the branch is required to email the closure unit with a list of all the accounts you hold (they actually had to write out all the sort codes, account numbers and card numbers) along with details of what each account/card is used for and the source of all regular/recent deposits. Everything is written by the branch on paper or directly into an email.

The closure unit can only be contacted by email via the branch. In order to update me with an outcome the branch offered to call me back. They advise the timescales can be up to 10 working days to hear back. Therfore, I wouldn’t put off going to the branch if you intend to do so.

In my case, the closure unit requested answers to a number of additional questions and the branch called me to obtain these. This was related to further clarifying deposit sources and reasons for transferring funds.

The branch I dealt with advised these closures are relatively rare for them to be dealing with, and as such, a little patience is needed to allow them time to understand the steps to follow. There is an internal process they can look up on their relevant knowledge base which explains each step in detail. 

The process in the branch initially took about 30 minutes for me and end to end took about 10 days between first visiting the branch and receiving a final outcome.

Great, Thks.

Bridlington1

Many thanks for the update @easysteve589 and for providing so much detail, I must say I'm left very pleasantly surprised by the outcome, I wasn't expecting them to overturn your lifetime ban so I'm glad to have been proven wrong on this one.

I'm now wondering if it could be worth another shot at trying to get my Metro and possibly Barclays lifetime bans overturned? When I tried to overturn the lifetime bans with these I went down the complaints route over the phone and was never given the option to appeal, with both claiming they couldn't contact the account closure unit and rejecting my complaints.

My nearest Metro branch is about an hour and a half away by train though, so if unsuccessful it would be an expense for very little gain. That being said my lectures at uni don't recommence until the end of the month so if I'm going to go trying to get lifetime bans lifted the next 2 weeks will probably be the best time to do it as I'm going to be very much pressed for time after that. I imagine if I do get the Metro ban overturned it could also reduce the risk of me getting further lifetime bans if Metro ever take over/are taken over by banks I already have an account with. Plus it would be a day out I suppose.

LBG also claimed to me in branch that they had no contact details for the account closure unit, though I think you're right in that trying to get this lifetime ban overturned in branch through the appeals process would be fruitless as I was such an unprofitable customer so probably wouldn't be worth the bother, plus I did break their terms in renewing, closing and reopening new regular savers at a higher rate.