Which documents must I give my bank

Band7

grumbler said:

TheBanker said:

COIAHLGW said:

Would Santander know exactly where you have other accounts however?

  They will also be able to see any accounts reported to the Credit Reference Agencies. 

Do they really see names of the lenders?

They almost certainly do. Some banks and building societies use CRA info for ID verification purposes. They give you multiple choice questions such as: on xx/xx/xxxx you opened a current account. Which of the following banks was this with?

IIRC, Halifax and YBS have asked me this in the past. I also had those questions from Moneysupermarket only earlier this week.

MikeJXE

noisla said:

My long time bank, Santander, recently did a know your customer (KYC) and I provided them a certificated copy of my ID, address and tax IDs. 

Now they called me with a mini interrogation and say they "need" copies of statements from all my other bank accounts with other banks, investments e.g. share certificates, my rental contract where I live, proof of my employment and my salary, tax statemens...

This is basically every personal document I own. I feel uneasy about this. Is this normal? Are they allowed to do this? I'm already feeling stupid for answering their questions on the phone. It's more than even in a tax audit.

(It's definitely Santander not a scam, as I hung up their call to me, contacted them back)

Maybe you need to look at what has changed recently

I have been with Santander for 10 years and over that period of time nothing much changed except the funds from the sale of my house that I distributed around various savings accounts, all my direct debits got out of that account, plus the only funds I have originate from that account ie my state pension. 

It has all changed now since December last, I have opened and closed (some) current accounts to take advantage of the switching incentives 

I currently have 7 bank accounts and funds go in and out of them as I need to 

Santander have not contacted me at all through this period but that doesn't say they won't 

If they do and ask all the questions you have had I will refuse and move 

eskbanker

Band7 said:

grumbler said:

TheBanker said:

COIAHLGW said:

Would Santander know exactly where you have other accounts however?

  They will also be able to see any accounts reported to the Credit Reference Agencies. 

Do they really see names of the lenders?

They almost certainly do. Some banks and building societies use CRA info for ID verification purposes. They give you multiple choice questions such as: on xx/xx/xxxx you opened a current account. Which of the following banks was this with?

IIRC, Halifax and YBS have asked me this in the past. I also had those questions from Moneysupermarket only earlier this week.

I don't believe that this signifies that they can see the lender names though - my understanding is that this process works along the lines of CRA passes multiple choice questions to bank, to ask the customer, and the selected answers are then relayed back to the CRA for yes/no validation of correctness.

Compound_2

Some banks and building societies use CRA info for ID verification purposes. They give you multiple choice questions such as: on xx/xx/xxxx you opened a current account. Which of the following banks was this with?

Might many on this forum with multiple accounts struggle with such a question?

Nebulous2

Compound_2 said:

Some banks and building societies use CRA info for ID verification purposes. They give you multiple choice questions such as: on xx/xx/xxxx you opened a current account. Which of the following banks was this with?

Might many on this forum with multiple accounts struggle with such a question?

I definitely do and I have fewer accounts, and have switched less often, than many people on here. 

The only way I can pass that test is to open my report from one of the CRAs in another tab and switch between the tabs to answer the questions. 

Newly_retired

You said you know it was Santander. Is there any possibility that it wasn't?

pridehappy

Seems very intrusive, I’d probably move elsewhere if you have the opportunity, especially with current switching offers!

CKhalvashi

I also think this seems very intrusive.

I'd personally maliciously comply with 6 years of statements for all accounts (including business accounts), all loan agreements, shareholder agreements, even all contracts and invoices (we use modified templates at work so they're very similar, very little requires a signature these days). If they want to sift through probably 20000+ pages of paperwork, they'd be willing to.

We are largely paper free as a company now and I'd even be willing to print and drop them into a branch.

As above, I'd look at switching away.

noisla

Thanks for all the comments. As an update, I provided a copy of my passport only, as I realise that everything else is unreasonable, and who knows how many more questions and document requests will come after.

So, my accounts will be frozen on Monday then closed; they will send me a cheque.


I can understand why I was picked for a KYC check (rules probably changed since I opened the account 15 years ago, inflow of money from selling a house, then I transferred some money to another bank to spread risk). But their requests are unreasonable:

• They don't want to see any evidence of source of the funds, nor any tax documents to show that everything was declared to HMRC.
• They only want copies of documents I told them about. Clearly, if I worked for a criminal gang or my rental apartment was in the Kremlin, I wouldn't have disclosed such things anyway.
• They can't actually explain why they need any specific document, beyond a general "it's our KYC process" and "not for marketing purposes" (yet, coincidentally, they are focussed on knowing the competitors that I bank with)

The big lesson I learnt here is NOT TO TELL YOUR BANK ANYTHING, as they told me clearly that they only check the things you tell them about. 

noisla

Newly_retired said:

You said you know it was Santander. Is there any possibility that it wasn't?

Well of course there's always a possibility of everything.

But I am pretty sure it's really Santander.

1. I did not accept the incoming call. I called them bank on the normal number on my card and online banking, which they were very happy for me to do.
2. I had to give the nth digit of my passcode etc (never a full password)
3. The calls tie up with Santander email notifications which seem to come from a real Santander address
4. They remind about the call being recorded, that they are regulated by the FCA, etc - no red flags in any of this (e.g. not muddling US and UK regulations, not trying to scare me by saying they'll report me)
   
5. They queried me about specific recent transactions which they knew about
6. They are not actually pressuring me to provide documents - they are also fine if I want to close the account
7. They are not making me do anything on the phone - just informing me what they need, to upload in the portal
8. They are very polite and there's really no pressure
9. I did have some large one-off transactions in the last 1-2 years (house sale), so the idea of a KYC check makes sense, it's just over-the-top here

I know that each thing in itself is not conclusive, but I am not sure what more I could check.