Santander demanding Employee ID and account numbers

400ixl

What is so secretive about those details to be worried about keeping them from your mortgage provider?

You are going to share an account number with them when you need to make mortgage repayments anyway. Account numbers and sort codes have never been secret, they are on cheques to start with, shared for any Direct debits etc.

Employee number also is not really an issue to share with your mortgage provider.

Whilst I agree with not over sharing, you are really going too far in this case. Provide the information they are asking for, or go elsewhere. You are not going to change their policies and neither should they. Sharing un-redacted payslips and bank statements is pretty normal in a mortgage application. The move to proof via open banking will remove your ability to redact in the future.

You claim those who comply are sheep, you are being a sheep to those with the extremist views the other way in this case. There is no valid reason not to share the documents un-redacted. There is no additional risk to you.

lisyloo

There a difference between giving ID info out for a raffle or competition and giving it to a bona fide organisation for a specific purpose and who will have processes to treat it confidentially.

The bottom line it if you want to do business with them then you have to play by their rules.

MattMattMattUK

So a highly regulated, highly secure company who you want to lend you hundreds of thousands of pounds requires that you supply them with unredacted financial documents to prove the source of your funds, a check that they are legally required to complete and one which they would receive huge fines if they did not complete properly. However you somehow feel you are above that process and they should just give you the money regardless. 

Santander will refuse your application, as will every other bank and lender if refuse to reply unredacted documents because it would be a breach of their legal obligations. It is not a sign of being "sheep", an insult often used by people with no rational argument, it is not "dangerous" to supply a bank with the information requested, it is required if you want to get a mortgage.

amnblog

PIP83

Quite simply, Lender's do not want you redacting documents.

There is regular fraud going on and they have process to catch this at source. They therefore do not want key information hidden.

If you want their money you must comply.

kingstreet

We, solicitors and lenders are expected to be able to contribute to a potential money laundering investigation by providing clear, unredacted evidence to contribute to an audit trail. Unfortunately, there is no way around that.

vacheron

PIP83 said:

I applied for a mortgage with Santander.

Sent them a wageslip but greyed out my Employee ID - that's none of their business.  All they need to see is I'm employed and that the salary figure I stated is accurate.
....
What business is it of theirs to want to know my account numbers or employee ID?

If you work for a large company there could easily be a few people on the payroll with the same name. The employee ID is used by Santander to ensure that they are referring to the correct person should they speak to your employer (the same reason that employee numbers, not names, are used by your company).

Refusing to reveal such an insignificant detail as your employee ID (I mean, what are they going to do with that?) will only trigger their suspicions.

PIP83 said:

 I don't like freely giving out my account numbers.

PIP83 said:

Can imagine you being one of these sheep who comply and then complain later  

Then buy with cash, or live off-grid in a yurt.
Nothing more "sheepish" than asking a bank for money to buy a property, along with literally millions of other people.    

ACG

How do they verify it is a real account and not a forged bank account without the account number and sort code? 

The employee number I think is more a case of why are you hiding something that is so unimportant? It seems a very odd thing to do. 

A mortgage is a joint contract between you and them, you both have to be happy with it. If you are not happy with what they are asking for, thats fine, you go elsewhere (although you are going to struggle to complete with any lender as the solicitors will also want that information). 

They are not demanding anything, they are asking for it. If you want the mortgage you need to supply it - at that stage the ball is in your court. 

TheBanker

Working for a mortgage lender (not the one being discussed here), I know that it is not uncommon for us to receive altered/counterfeit documents in support of mortgage applications. Wage slips with amounts altered, bank statements with details altered. Sometimes they are so silly that the amount on the counterfeit bank statement doesn't match the amount on the counterfeit payslip. Other times we need to be slightly more sophisticated in the checks we complete.

So it is perfectly reasonable to ask for unaltered documents to complete proper fraud and money laundering checks. You want Santander to lend you tens or hundreds of thousands of pounts, and you're happy for them to have security over your home, but you're not happy to show them your savings account number?

They are asking, not 'demanding' - just as you cannot 'demand' that they lend you money. Hopefully they've cancelled your appliation by now and aren't wasting any more time dealing with you. They have plenty of better customers to spend their time on. 

ACG

TheBanker said:

Working for a mortgage lender (not the one being discussed here), I know that it is not uncommon for us to receive altered/counterfeit documents in support of mortgage applications. Wage slips with amounts altered, bank statements with details altered. Sometimes they are so silly that the amount on the counterfeit bank statement doesn't match the amount on the counterfeit payslip. Other times we need to be slightly more sophisticated in the checks we complete.

So it is perfectly reasonable to ask for unaltered documents to complete proper fraud and money laundering checks. You want Santander to lend you tens or hundreds of thousands of pounts, and you're happy for them to have security over your home, but you're not happy to show them your savings account number?

They are asking, not 'demanding' - just as you cannot 'demand' that they lend you money. Hopefully they've cancelled your appliation by now and aren't wasting any more time dealing with you. They have plenty of better customers to spend their time on. 

If only you could say that in the real job eh! 
Having worked for a couple of banks, the things people do and say... You just want to call them out for being completely ridiculous or unreasonable. But you also want to keep your job. 

MWT

ACG said:

If only you could say that in the real job eh! 
Having worked for a couple of banks, the things people do and say... You just want to call them out for being completely ridiculous or unreasonable. But you also want to keep your job. 

The very few occasions upon which I was able to do exactly that are among some of my fondest memories of working in a customer facing environment