Virgin Money Customer Survey

RG2015

I have just received a customer survey from Virgin Money, Brighter Money Matters. I had signed up for their Brighter Money Matters a few weeks back so was happy it was not an unsolicited email.

The survey was about a specimen letter asking for KYC information and VM wanting to know what I felt about it. It included the standard due diligence, proof of identity documents and source of funds evidence.

The letter didn't pull any punches with the second paragrah headed "important information" saying;

"Just so you know, if we do not receive the details we've asked for below within 14 days of the date on this letter, we may need to close your account(s)"

The bold print is theirs and not something I have added. There was a free form feedback box after answering their set questions on my understanding of the requirements. I did suggest that 14 days was a bit short notice.

I guess we may be seeing this in the near future but it seems odd timing given the Nationwide takeover over the next few years.

TheBanker

RG2015 said:

I have just received a customer survey from Virgin Money, Brighter Money Matters. I had signed up for their Brighter Money Matters a few weeks back so was happy it was not an unsolicited email.

The survey was about a specimen letter asking for KYC information and VM wanting to know what I felt about it. It included the standard due diligence, proof of identity documents and source of funds evidence.

The letter didn't pull any punches with the second paragrah headed "important information" saying;

"Just so you know, if we do not receive the details we've asked for below within 14 days of the date on this letter, we may need to close your account(s)"

The bold print is theirs and not something I have added. There was a free form feedback box after answering their set questions on my understanding of the requirements. I did suggest that 14 days was a bit short notice.

I guess we may be seeing this in the near future but it seems odd timing given the Nationwide takeover over the next few years.

BIB: They have to meet their regulatory requirements now. The regulator won't let them off because they may be taken over by another institution at some unknown future date. 

I agree with you that 14 days is not long. Assuming this is a letter rather than an email, there could be delays in the post both ways (may just be me, but I only seem to receive my post once a week these days!), and someone could be on holiday when it arrives. Also it might take someone a few days to sort out the documents, get to a photocopier, and then to a post box. So 14 days isn't very long at all, taking that into account. 

Section62

RG2015 said:

...

"Just so you know, if we do not receive the details we've asked for below within 14 days of the date on this letter, we may need to close your account(s)"

The bold print is theirs and not something I have added. There was a free form feedback box after answering their set questions on my understanding of the requirements. I did suggest that 14 days was a bit short notice.

I guess we may be seeing this in the near future but it seems odd timing given the Nationwide takeover over the next few years.

If they send the letter by Royal Mail (and expect anything back via the same route) then 14 days is tight.  And people often go away on holiday for a couple of weeks, so if you are unlucky with the timing you could get back from a couple of weeks in the sun to find your accounts being closed.

If you would also get notification by email/text it might not be so bad, but that depends whether the notification gives a clue what the letter is about, rather than a generic "You have an important communication" type message.

RG2015

TheBanker said:

RG2015 said:

I have just received a customer survey from Virgin Money, Brighter Money Matters. I had signed up for their Brighter Money Matters a few weeks back so was happy it was not an unsolicited email.

The survey was about a specimen letter asking for KYC information and VM wanting to know what I felt about it. It included the standard due diligence, proof of identity documents and source of funds evidence.

The letter didn't pull any punches with the second paragrah headed "important information" saying;

"Just so you know, if we do not receive the details we've asked for below within 14 days of the date on this letter, we may need to close your account(s)"

The bold print is theirs and not something I have added. There was a free form feedback box after answering their set questions on my understanding of the requirements. I did suggest that 14 days was a bit short notice.

I guess we may be seeing this in the near future but it seems odd timing given the Nationwide takeover over the next few years.

BIB: They have to meet their regulatory requirements now. The regulator won't let them off because they may be taken over by another institution at some unknown future date. 

I agree with you that 14 days is not long. Assuming this is a letter rather than an email, there could be delays in the post both ways (may just be me, but I only seem to receive my post once a week these days!), and someone could be on holiday when it arrives. Also it might take someone a few days to sort out the documents, get to a photocopier, and then to a post box. So 14 days isn't very long at all, taking that into account. 

I agree that they still need to do the KYC, and I am sure they are already doing it.

My point was why bother with a customer survey? Surely this is just PR so why would they want to spend time, resources and money on PR when they are selling up? 

RG2015

Section62 said:

RG2015 said:

...

"Just so you know, if we do not receive the details we've asked for below within 14 days of the date on this letter, we may need to close your account(s)"

The bold print is theirs and not something I have added. There was a free form feedback box after answering their set questions on my understanding of the requirements. I did suggest that 14 days was a bit short notice.

I guess we may be seeing this in the near future but it seems odd timing given the Nationwide takeover over the next few years.

If they send the letter by Royal Mail (and expect anything back via the same route) then 14 days is tight.  And people often go away on holiday for a couple of weeks, so if you are unlucky with the timing you could get back from a couple of weeks in the sun to find your accounts being closed.

If you would also get notification by email/text it might not be so bad, but that depends whether the notification gives a clue what the letter is about, rather than a generic "You have an important communication" type message.

In practice, I have seen that VM do lodge a copies of letters in your secure inbox online as well as in the Royal Mail postbox.

eskbanker

RG2015 said:

I agree that they still need to do the KYC, and I am sure they are already doing it.

My point was why bother with a customer survey? Surely this is just PR so why would they want to spend time, resources and money on PR when they are selling up? 

Surely it's valid to seek customer feedback about the execution of one of their business processes, even though it's driven by regulatory requirements?  The fact that there's an offer pending for the company doesn't really change anything, i.e. if their customers were strongly of the opinion that something of the letter's wording ought to be changed (and doing so doesn't breach the regulations) then it would still be worth doing, regardless of the potential sale....

RG2015

eskbanker said:

RG2015 said:

I agree that they still need to do the KYC, and I am sure they are already doing it.

My point was why bother with a customer survey? Surely this is just PR so why would they want to spend time, resources and money on PR when they are selling up? 

Surely it's valid to seek customer feedback about the execution of one of their business processes, even though it's driven by regulatory requirements?  The fact that there's an offer pending for the company doesn't really change anything, i.e. if their customers were strongly of the opinion that something of the letter's wording ought to be changed (and doing so doesn't breach the regulations) then it would still be worth doing, regardless of the potential sale....

I don't doubt that it is a laudable exercise. Indeed I said so as part of my feedback and also that I was not aware that any other banks have done this.

Perhaps I am just an old cynic.