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.

If it's suspicion of money-laundering, fraud, or the sanctions list then GDPR will not help and a SAR will not cause them to release to you all the data they hold.

The sanctions lists are public, so you can check your name against the list to see if there's the potential for misidentification.

It's very unlikely the OP will find out what triggered this, but it is worth speaking to a branch manager to check that it's not a simple error. The first message about lack of funds seems very odd under the circumstances described.

Hi OP just to confirm that this has happened to thousands of customers, I've read about it in the consumer/money pages of the Times. There is some sort of algorithm weeding out customers. You should in fact be able to get an explanation under GDPR rules, but the banks hide behind fraud concerns/commercial confidentiality.

As a pp said, find a bank who wants you! Banks like Starling and First Direct get good customer service reviews. Probably quicker and easier than bothering with the Ombudsman and if Natwest don't want you, why fight to stay with them? Give a different bank your business.

How did bank complaints from customers get sent directly to the ceo?

But from the sound of it you no longer work for a bank do you?

Times have moved on and what @Yellownotblue says is on the nail. Just to be clear even the CEO cannot do anything because there are barriers between AML teams and other employees at ALL levels including at senior board level. If the AML team brief the CEO they commit a criminal offence and could go to jail. So could the CEO for being responsible for facilitating the breach!

OP will get nowhere by going into the branch or writing to the company. The bank cannot reply and if the AML team explain to OP why they have been blocked, guess what? They could go to jail.

OP has no other choice but to leave the bank and open a new account.

The travesty is that financial institutions now use computer algorithms to determine who is a money-laundering risk and who is not. Those algorithms are frequently getting it wrong. It is a national scandal. In other countries the parameters are not set so high, including the EU.

There is a very very specific protocol for banking complaints

and it doesn’t involve the CEO

Because customers got the CEO’s name/details from wherever and wrote directly to them?

What’s your actual issue here?

I've had similar problems with my old bank. I think they have some algorithms set up that flags activity deemed suspicious by certain parameters. My account frequently got blocked when I made online payments.

I got so fed up I switched banks. I already had a savings account with another bank and simply made that my main bank. I was using a transfer service to make sure that none of my regular bills went unpaid and they blocked that too (although I think that was done manually).

OP, if they won't talk to you or give you your money it's time to start talking to a sollicitor. Might also be a good idea to get legal insurance, although you won't be able to use it for this. Companies get ever more brazen about how they treat their customers and often you don't really have many alternatives to choose from.

@famagusta, you’ll see in my original post I said that in OPs case it was pointless doing a CEO complaint as they won’t be able to answer it because of the nature of the issue.

The ceo would not be able to get involved in any banking customer complaint set by the regulators

How long ago were you working for the ceo of a bank?

The ombudsman is an absolute joke has somebody mentioned NHunter already to you ?
try and get hold of that file although to be fair I have gone round around in circles with them because it is actually a breach for them to report in accurate data but they do anyway.

This happened to me with RBS (same banking group) they put a marker on my file. I had to do a CIFAS data request and a fraud marker was out on there. This meant I couldn't open a new account with a new bank.

I had to make a formal complaint to RBS who wouldn't back down from their decision. Then I had to do an appeal through CIFAS who conducted their own investigation and after about 12 months I had the marker removed. This meant I was then able to open a new account with Barclays.

During the 12 months I didn't have a bank account, I opened a Pockit account which allows wages to be paid and direct debits to come out. It costs £5 for the card and then £2 per month.

Good luck, I hope you sort it

Surely you were compensated?

You need to contact CIFAS and see what they have on you. My DP went through the exact same thing with NatWest closing his account, he then couldn’t get a bank account anywhere expect for Monzo. Turns out Marbles (credit card) had messed up his account and put a fraud flag on then, it only affected NatWest when we tried to take out a joint account. It took months but it was finally sorted, go on the CIFAS website and they will direct you from there.

Surely this is a huge worry for the banks too.
Someone with nefarious aims could freeze hundreds of thousands of people's bank accounts by depositing a small amount.
Sounds like there is no way to protect yourselves - you can't stop someone paying money into your account.
How does someone survive now with no bank account?

Surely @ArabellaDrummond is proven error he was compensated?

Sorry to derail OPs thread but to answer a couple of questions:

No. I never got my money returned from Barclays.

No. I've never been arrested or charged with anything. I did get my first parking ticket last year though! Not sure if my name is the same as a criminal, my name is quite unique so I'll Google that.

I've been signed up with all the credit reference agencies for years as I had debt that I was clearing (cleared in 2015) and nothing has ever shown up. Not on a CIFCAS search either.

Interestingly, I did get involved with matched betting around 2014/15 ish...

How do I manage without a bank account? With difficulty! I've got a prepaid debit card that allows direct debits and standing orders but has high fees every month.

Come back and update us, OP? Good luck with it all. I have everything crossed for you.

@waterbottle123 I can absolutely assure you that my story is 100% true. Completely true, every word. I am not a troll that makes shut up, ask MN who will verify me.

*shit Damn autocorrect!

I think this could have happened if your employer's payment was recalled (which can happen for any random reason/system error).

So your incoming payment doesn't arrive correctly, and isn't in the account.
Their bank recalls the funds. However as the incoming payment has not cleared to your account their is thus 'insufficient funds' to follow this automated bank instruction.
Because you had insufficient funds, above a certain level, this automatically triggers Nat West to declare you unworthy of holding a bank account with them, and hence the letter.

Very hard to get this resolved because the computer will say 'no' - had similar happen to a friend.

I’ve sent a complaint directly to the CEO of a bank before. I emailed it to their work email address.

You can also write a letter.

@OldTinHat

Then why didn't you raise a complaint of theft, with the police? Or raise merry hell with your MP?

I cannot believe anyone would accept this. I'm sorry if you're genuine, that's awful, but the story seems utterly unbelievable. We do have laws in this country to protect ppl,

@SWnewstart Do you have any actual or apparent links with foreign countries? Foreign-sounding name, foreign citizenship, married to someone who isn't a Brit and/or has a foreign-sounding name? If you google your name (and/or your spouse if applicable) do you see things about you/random people with the same name, or do get a scary news article about something bad? (I.e. do you happen to have the same name as a known criminal?)

A lot of the time, if there's no obvious alternative fact pattern, the bank is reviewing their records and has decided you're a 'Politically Exposed Person' (e.g. a Russian oligarch) or from a high-risk country and you're not worth the Money Laundering risk.

The really shitty think about the AML legislation is that it's written so that the bank will get in serious trouble if they tell you that they've closed your account for money laundering. So they can't tell you. Which would be fine if you were money laundering, but it means when there's a cause of mistaken identity, you have no idea what the hell is happening and don't know how to resolve it.

This happened to me about seven years ago with hsbc after banking with them for almost 20 years. I moved to Lloyds and got FAR better service and lots of account benefits. Will never use hsbc again.