UK Banks non Resident invasive questions.

[Wellington]

Deposited a small sum of money in an account in the UK to transfer to family for funeral expenditures recently.

Learned within a few days it was blocked, apparently had been blocked since late Nov when the bank tried to contact 13 numbers for me (not thinking to use the email address on the account or the OTP number on the account to log into the account).

Anyway they must (chap on the phone said) have left messages all over the place.

Anyway, during the discussion they said it was because they hadn't updated their records and then proceeded to ask the following set(s) of questions.

1. Real Estate in the UK (None)
   1. I am guessing they meant solely in the UK as not sure the relevance to a UK Bank otherwise.
2. Real Estate rental in the UK (None)
3. Savings
   1. This was world wide, and i assumed they meant 'fiat savings'
4. Investments
   1. Value at time
   2. Value today
5. Employer or Company information
   1. Location
   2. Capital to establish company
6. Tax Residence (gave TIN for one of the countries i am resident tax payer in)
7. Inheritance (any)
8. Will finances change in the next 12 months (said either the banks will collapse or they pump our assets - was right on both).

To me this stinks of an invasion of private information (non-resident - since 2012) barely engage in pounds let alone the UK.

Deposited total of 6,000 over two transactions, one in Sep - fine, one in Feb - learned of the issue.

Undoubtably read like a HMRC question sheet (non-resident for 10+ yrs). CDD, EDD.

This the norm in the UK now?

 

[Larin]

Unfortunately, this is what passes for a basic KYC (know your client) questionnaire these days.‌

 

[Martin Everson]

No idea but‌ line of questioning sounds about right for banks nowadays. Question 7 is odd one. Probably‍ triggered when you said funeral maybe? All very HMRC'ish when put together.....very odd ca#"!.

 

[BA UK]

Normal procedure

 

[Sols]

Perhaps a bit early in the relationship to ask this (maybe something about your account‌ activity triggered this), but it's a normal set of questions.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

“Rules and regulations”. They will probably close your account as it “falls outside their risk appetite”.

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[Wellington]

I'd banked with them since 2006 - they'd have most‍ of this info

I filed a complaint with omb over it actually as they said⁠ a week and then didn't unblock, argument was to the omb -send funds on for⁤ funeral, close account (don't use bank).

Apparently they rang my 95 year old grandmother (after⁣ updating the phone records and email records, and address records a week ago).

couple of grand from a stock account and couple of grand︃ deposited to send onwards.
Only banking txt in a few years.

Non Residents don't pay tax in the UK, line of questions︆ should have stopped that progressing the moment i said - non-resident, have been for over︇ a decade.

real estate rental (UK) makes sense as thats a taxable offence.

 

[Martin Everson]

The line of questioning seems like an internal residency test to see⁠ if your account matches number of UK links to be reported to HMRC.

P.S If⁤ its Barclays bank then you probably know why.

 

[Forester]

Would you mind to elaborate a little bit more on this? I had quite‍ a positive experience with Barclays in the past but almost no current information, I must⁠ admit...
P.S. Feel free to PM me if you consider it more proper...

 

[Martin Everson]

Barclays UK and Citibank UK are HMRC's appointed collection banks if I remember⁠ old)(#. They need to be squeaky bum clean.

 

[Forester]

Oh well. Now‍ I understand, thanks 🙂

 

[Martin Everson]

Seems they may have‌ dumped Citibank now

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-taxes-penalties-and-enquiry-settlements

Pay from overseas​

Use the following details to pay from an‍ overseas account:

Account number (IBAN)	Bank identifier code (BIC)	Account name
GB03 BARC 2011 4783⁠ 9776 92	BARCGB22	HMRC Shipley

 

[Steve3000]

Private information? We have less privacy every‌ year. It started when governments started talking about Privacy! Oldest trick in the book. Tell‍ people the opposite of what's really happening. Read Orwell's '1984' and 'Animal Farm'.