Natwest letter received "ceasing banking relationship" - what on earth is going on?

[SWnewstart]

I've banked with Natwest for approx 45 years, same current account and more recently a little saver account with less than £30 in it. Came back from holiday 2 days ago to a pile of post amongst which was my salary slip from part-time job, a new bank debit card to replace the current one expiring at the end of June and a letter from Natwest starting off "were you aware that we couldn't make some of your payments because there were not enough available funds in your account" - NOT TRUE.

I immediately went online and checked - there was approx £800 and I don't have any regular payments more than £40 a month (retired and mortgage free). The strange bit is that under the heading of What Items Have Not Been Paid were details of my employer and salary which obviously goes into the account, not out of it! The online statement didn't show my salary at all for May. I contacted the virtual assistant at Natwest who could only advise me to speak to my employer. I did this the next day, only to be told the payment had been returned and had I changed account details or anything? No, nothing changed at all. This morning my employer advised they had again made a BACS payment for my May salary and to let them know if it worked. I checked and the payment was in my account.

However, in the post today was another letter from Natwest stating that "we regret to inform you that following a recent review we have decided to cease our banking relationship with you as from 1 August 2022". I immediately tried calling the Shared Services in Manchester on letterhead but number just rang out. The letter also says this decision is final and they are not able to discuss the decision with me or provide any further information in relation to the decision making.

Are there any Natwest people out there who could shed any light on this (or any other bank staff). What on earth is going on? I'm worried sick.

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Hmmm. Time to move my account, I think. I wasn't that happy with them anyway.

Ulster Bank is pulling out of Ireland and I had a communication yesterday to say that I must have another account by the 3 December 2022.

Always love it when the 'DH thinks' responses are rolled out, the man has arrived to explain all....

OP - GDPR must be your friend here, you have a right to ALL data NatWest hold on you, ask for it.

And I'd ignore the poster claiming the bank kept her money and she couldn't have an account for 6 years, likely a cruel and untrue story. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

This is so baffling though, sympathies to the OP. How can they mistake a normal person who goes to work and comes home and shops in tesco etc for a money launderer. Stuff of nightmares.

In terms of the complaint, ombudsman etc - seriously, don't waste your time op. The FOS don't find in favour of customers in such situations, ever - the decision to end their banking relationship with you is a legitimate business decision that the bank are entitled to make. The FOS cannot compel them to tell you why and the bank will not release this information.

Take the advice to check your credit files and, more importantly, CIFAS. If they're clear, open a new account and move on.

As to the reason - it could be you OR anyone linked to you. Hypothetically - if someone who's recently transferred you money is under suspicion for fraud or money laundering, the bank may have decided to get rid of those who received money, just in case. Even if it was just a £100 transfer to your account from the neighbours for the shopping you got them.

Maybe you used your card somewhere abroad a few times where the business is under investigation.

Maybe 100 other reasons.

However - the posts suggesting this is an automatic 'algorithm gone wrong' are incorrect. Exit decisions are made by humans. Something flags automatically as cause for concern - then an investigation is conducted and a human makes the decision to keep you or get rid.

They're harsh and banks are very risk averse, but exit decisions are not made lightly and are rarely completed in error.

Dont bother yourself with going to a branch. The staff there won’t know anything as this kind of information is kept off-platform

Just move on and get another bank.

Nobody has a right to services and the Banks’ decisions are their own. Equally, nobody has the right to ALL information held on them when it comes to anti money laundering matters.

Complaining to the CEO or press won’t change anything. They’d rather a few hacked off customers than this again news.sky.com/story/natwest-fined-265m-for-failing-to-stop-drugs-gang-laundering-bin-bags-stuffed-with-cash-through-branches-12494867?authId=1szcc41_a*bFNZcUhTVGNnRXFsWE9JczZnS2g3WUpjTndWYUN3SWVHRkdMLURmbGhmbS1WS0NwMzlTcHRITnNaYjU1d1VCSg..

Ps the reason I mentioned Ulster Bank is that they are (by another name) Nat West. When I went to the UK, I used a letter from them to set up a new account fairly easily so clutching at more straws here, is there any possibility that they are mixing up a small section of their uk based customers as having opened accounts in Ireland. Even though my instruction to get a new account is legitimate I got a lot more notice than you got. I only formally heard from THEM (not the news) that I'd need a new account the day before yesterday and they gave me nearly 6 months.

@SWnewstart this would give me a lot of anxiety! beer and yoga and more beer

Also ignore the post about someone having their money taken and being unable to open accounts anywhere and not knowing why. This doesn't happen.

You'll likely be declined a new account if the bank have made a CIFAS entry about you - which you can find out.

If there's nothing on CIFAS, assuming a decent credit score you'll have no problems opening a new account...and banks don't confiscate an entire credit balance.

wow. 265 milion pound fine! Baffling though. What on earth about the OP's account leads them to conclude that she is laundering

How can you possibly know that?

Have you read the posts above? What “paperwork” do you sugget will magically resolve this issue.

Fraud of some kind.
they probably won’t talk to you.
hope it gets sorted, I’d start with the branch

It's curious that Italy came up. I had issues with a credit card I used in Italy that led the bank to freezing my current account and putting it under investigation. It turned out the business I used in Italy was somehow involved in land/ money laundering in the UK.
Fortunately they could see I had no capital to speak of, no sudden deposits of money and I was just a fairly average young adult on holiday. Scared me though.

Mumsnet is not what you should be on op

gather all correspondence you have received and go to your bank today and say you urgently need to SEE someone to discuss a critical matter.

Algorithms pick out risky customers. Looks like you may have been wrongly selected. I bet this is what happened - given that they say the decision is final, looks automated to me.

This is worrying. Maybe it is a good idea to have a back up bank account!

Do you shred all post from your bank? I mostly use online statements, but recently had a letter from barclays that had my name and address (obviously) and my account number. If someone has targeted you for identity theft, over time they can root through your recycling and build up all sorts of personal info on you from mail you've thrown away. 10-15 years ago this was very very common.

I also think it was the transaction in Italy that is the cause. I went to tenerife and used my debit card quite a bit. When I came back there were some strange transactions that weren't mine adding up to around £500. It took months to get sorted and eventually barclays gave me my money back, with a snotty letter that saiddon't this occasion we will return the money as a gesture of goodwill"

I would be going into the branch. You don't need to know why or how, but you may be able to convince them you're not a criminal mastermind if you are able to speak to an actual human.

Due to the nature of the letter you have received it is unlikely that you will get an answer from the bank.

Branch or telephone staff will not be able to tell you anything.

It will be a separate account review team that has actioned the freeze and withdrawal of your account. They do not need to justify why and branch staff will not have access to their decision.

This closure will be triggered either by some type of unusual suspicious transaction, a pattern of transactions, an association with someone with the former or fraud.

If it is fraud or CIFAS as someone mentioned earlier then you may struggle to open a new account elsewhere. As this information is registered on your credit file.

If it isn't then you should be able to as the decision will be kept 'in house'

Your best bet is to open a 'basic bank account' elsewhere.

You could ask NatWest for a 'final response' letter as part of their complaints process and pass this on to the ombudsman to investigate. This will take time and you may not get anywhere.

I work for a bank and have worked on a team that would take this action. It is not usually taken lightly.

I have to respectfully disagree as I used to get the CEO complaints for my team and I had to drop everything to deal with them.

However, in this particular case I agree that doing one is pointless given that it sounds like it’s a fraud issue and as others have said, they’ll not discuss anything with you.

You can open a bank account with Starling within an hour or two. Just do that and then close account

my bank account was frozen when I used a money broker to send a couple of grand to 'forrin' (to pay for a holiday villa).

I had to go knto the bank branch to verify my identity. had to take passport & utility bill.
account was 'unfrozen' after that.
but was a pain to untangle as account was frozen for about a week and direct dabits needed to be re-instated.

good luck!

@Williamshatnershorses

have to respectfully disagree as I used to get the CEO complaints for my team and I had to drop everything to deal with them.

Sorry if missed but fo you work for a bank?

There was an article about this issue in the I paper a couple of weeks ago. You may need to escalate to the ombudsman if you have no luck at the bank, or try writing to the money pages of one of the papers. They often get things sorted when all other communication has not worked.

Yes I did. CEO complaints and journalist enquiries from the financial pages dealing with reader complaints. And also if MPs wrote in about constituents who had issues. Was a very interesting part of my wider role.

If they have closed your account because they think it is linked to money laundering not only should they not tell you this, it's a criminal offence to do so. Unfortunately this means it can be very difficult to sort out issues where the bank has mistakenly identified your account as being involved in money laundering.