Santander fraud team

[Berry642]

My two siblings and I have inherited some money from a deceased relatives house sale. It is to be split three ways. As the next of kin the money from the house has gone to eldest sibling.

They had phoned the bank and explained that the money had to be transferred to two other accounts. There seemed to be no problem with this.
Santander have now put a hold on the money ,they said it would be 48 hours but that deadline has passed.

They are saying it's to stop fraud,whereas I can understand this to a level it is very clear the money has come from a solicitors ,so I cannot see what is taking so long?
For context you are talking below 40k each so not hundreds of thousands although I appreciate it is still substantial.
I've read lots of horror stories involving this sort of practice at Santander, can anyone tell me their experiences ?

As PP has posted. You cannot go straight to the Ombudsman, you have to go through the banks formal complaints procedure first. You’d be very, very unlikely for this to be upheld (by either the bank, or Ombudsman), if the bank has taken a week or so to complete its AML checks.

(25 years in banking, 2 of those heading up a bank’s regulated sales complaints team).

I did not say you could go straight to the Ombudsman. I said consider raising an official complaint. It won’t go anywhere near the Ombudsman. This is a general point that others can make use of.
I’ve made at least 5 complaints over the last couple of years. Just general slowness usually caused by mishandling of accounts. Every one of them has resulted in a payment. ‘The bank’s formal complaints procedure’ sounds really hard to the average person but in practice has been me sending an email or at times just stating on the phone that I want it logged as a complaint. No lengthy forms.
Not saying you’ll be due anything yet but it initiates a process that the bank has to deal with.
I’m just a consumer though (but one who’s had over £1000 from raising complaints).