Information Requested By Bank

Dandelion38_

I have been written to on two separate occasions by my bank with a lot of forms requesting information saying they wanted to ‘update their records.’ I have been with the same bank for about 50 years and my information has never changed apart from addresses and phone numbers when moving house.  The only different thing that has happened is that I have received an inheritance and they are asking me where the money came from.  I asked my financial adviser if I was obliged to fill in this form and he answered “no.”  I then received a text, “we recently wrote to you to let you know that we needed some additional information and documents from you, please call us on …….”  So, I went to the local branch today and they told me that I was required to supply this information by law and that I would receive a further letter and if I didn’t fill it in and send it off my account may be frozen.  My husband and I are in our 70s and find this invasive, intimidating and harassing.  Can anyone else concur with this?

DullGreyGuy

Banks in recent years have had big fines for not having done and retained appropriate "know your customer" checks which are to prevent money laundering. As a consequence, several banks have been doing large exercises to ensure their records are now up to date for all current customers.

What are they asking you to provide? 

It sounds like you are getting half truths from both sides... they are legal obliged to do these checks. You are within your rights to refuse but the expected outcome will be your accounts are closed. So the question really is do you want to give this information to your current bank or open a new account elsewhere and provide them with similar information?