NatWest Business Account Suddenly “Unavailable”

Mrmax

Hello,

My 3-year-old NatWest business account has suddenly stopped appearing in online banking. When I log in, it only shows “Your account is unavailable.”

What I’ve tried so far:

• Logged in on both mobile and desktop – same error

• Called customer service repeatedly – told a “central team” will call me but no contact

• Visited a branch – they can’t see any information and say to wait

• Raised a formal complaint – only received a reference number

It has now been 8 days with no explanation and no access to business funds. I need to pay staff and upcoming bills, direct debit, so this is extremely stressful.

My questions:

1. How long can a business account remain “unavailable”?

2. Is my money safe during this?

3. Could this be an AML/compliance review?

4. Can this affect my personal account at another bank?

5. What can I do to get an update faster?

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Chief_of_Staffy

Indefinitely, no, yes, no, nothing. Less flippantly, if there's nothing you know of that would have caused it, it might well be a payment made to you from a suspicious account. Precisely the reason I route all payments through a third party provider. Or that someone got hold of your card details and made a fraudulent payment. The delay is inexcusable, though, but what do they care? They're limiting their liabilities and that's what matters.

abeta

Hi all, we seem to be experiencing the same issue. Our NatWest business account has suddenly become inaccessible and customer payments sent by bank transfer have been returned. We are unable to receive payments or pay suppliers and we have had no warning or explanation from NatWest.

This is causing serious cash flow problems for our business and we are trying to understand what is happening. We are wondering whether this could be some kind of compliance review or internal freeze, although we have not received any formal notice.

If anyone has experienced this before, how long did it take to get an update or resolution? Were the funds safe during the process? Any advice on what steps we can take to get clarity from NatWest would be very helpful.

May_be_real_life

This has happened to us too, except that we don't even get the message that the account is unavailable, it's like it just doesn't exist.  All of the responses I have, ether over the chat, telephone, or in branch, are to wait for the Business Team to contact me.  There is no suggestion of how or when.  We are having customer payments being returned and are unable to pay suppliers.  We have no capacity to exist as a business if this continues.

Ergates

If a Suspicious Activity Report has been raised then the account will be frozen until it is completed.  These cases are handed over to the National Crime Agency, and from that point on it is them that determines the timeline.  They have a week to decide if they want to carry out a full investigation, and if they do, they get another 30 days to do this.    During this time period the bank *cannot* unfreeze your account and *cannot* tell you *anything* (at risk of imprisonment).

You money is safe in the sense that nobody is going to steal it.  Obviously if the NCA decide you've been involved in criminal activity then they may seize it as proceeds of crime.

Chief_of_Staffy said:

The delay is inexcusable, though, but what do they care? They're limiting their liabilities and that's what matters.

You mean "They're carrying out their legally mandated obligations and have no say in the matter"