These damned bankers... a plea for advice

[AF62]

I doubt it's AML.

Don't agree - From everything 4lex has said, it has all the hallmarks of triggering AML.

If the ombudsman has looked at it and determined that it is reasonable for them to be asked to visit a branch with ID, then it is deeply unlikely that doing anything other than that will resolve the issue.

[chas49]

Whether this is of use in pursuing the matter with the CEO's office, I'm not sure but TSB does have a process for non UK EU residents to open accounts:

https://www.tsb.co.uk/current-accounts/ ... residents/

Certification of your documents
A certified photocopy of these documents will need to be sent to TSB. We don't accept original documents sent by post . A certified copy of a document is a photocopy made by a registered professional who writes certain details to state that the document is an accurate copy of an original document they've seen.

We will ask you to give us some notarised copies of extra documents which explain what the account is for, and how you'll use it.

You need to be aware that the registered professional may charge you for their services. Any charge associated with certification or notarisation of documents will be payable by yourself and is non-refundable, even in the event that the application is not fulfilled.

You will need to make the certifier aware that they may be contacted by TSB to verify their certification. The TSB list of acceptable certifiers is:

Registered lawyer/solicitor
Registered accountant.
Certified copies must include the following details:
Name of certifier
Signature of certifier
Business address of certifier
Professional qualifications of certifier
Trade/industry association membership number (if applicable) of certifier
Contact details of certifier at his/her business address (including a landline phone number)
The date on which documents were certified
The wording must be in English and must read as follows:
For photo ID: 'I certify this is a true copy of the original and bears a true likeness to the individual'
For ID which does not contain a photo: 'I certify this is a true copy of the original'.

You could at least point out to them that you could use this method to open an accout, so why not to unlock one?

[bungeejumper]

I doubt it's AML.

Don't agree - From everything 4lex has said, it has all the hallmarks of triggering AML.

Yes, my immediate thought was that it was probably an AML trigger that first set this scenario into motion. Either that, or else TSB suspected that the OP might be trying to do something illicit to a more or less dormant account where the assets beneficially belonged to his co-signatory.

Total devil's advocate here , but the bank might have wondered whether his sister was aware at all of the transaction, or indeed whether she was in a fit state to manage the account herself? (Vulnerability issues, you get my drift?) What with all the "Nigerian scams" and so forth, it would have seemed logical - and indeed sensible! - for the bank to demand extra certainty and security before allowing a cross-border access of the account to take place.

But the puzzle is that, if so, they could have just asked her!

BJ

[AF62]

I doubt it's AML.

Don't agree - From everything 4lex has said, it has all the hallmarks of triggering AML.

Yes, my immediate thought was that it was probably an AML trigger that first set this scenario into motion. Either that, or else TSB suspected that the OP might be trying to do something illicit to a more or less dormant account where the assets beneficially belonged to his co-signatory.

Total devil's advocate here , but the bank might have wondered whether his sister was aware at all of the transaction, or indeed whether she was in a fit state to manage the account herself? (Vulnerability issues, you get my drift?) What with all the "Nigerian scams" and so forth, it would have seemed logical - and indeed sensible! - for the bank to demand extra certainty and security before allowing a cross-border access of the account to take place.

But the puzzle is that, if so, they could have just asked her!

BJ

Why are you suggesting there is a co-signatory? All I can see initially mentioned was

About a year ago I seemingly rashly tried to transfer a small sum of money to my sister

As it appears 4lex was trying to transfer money from their account to their sister's, then the bank asked to send the money would not be permitted to speak the recipient.

4lex also does not mention where their sister banks, which may be significant.

[bungeejumper]

Why are you suggesting there is a co-signatory? All I can see initially mentioned was

About a year ago I seemingly rashly tried to transfer a small sum of money to my sister

As it appears 4lex was trying to transfer money from their account to their sister's, then the bank asked to send the money would not be permitted to speak the recipient.

You're right, I misread it as meaning it was somehow a shared account. My bad. Caffeine deficiency/ Thanks!

4lex also does not mention where their sister banks, which may be significant.

Indeed it may!

BJ

[4lex]

Claer's referred me to a colleague of hers, in a kind of half-arsed fashion, but she's a busy lady and did at least do that - and I'm grateful.

In the meantime the bank's complaints department have written again saying they're happy with the outcome (I'm sure they are).

I have no idea why they have blocked the account. I opened an account with Lloyds in circa 1979 because they had a promotion for kids giving away a free sports bag. The approach was to turn up to the bank, an overly-perfumed teller would say 'What's your name sonny' - or words to that effect, and she'd write it down and open the account in that name.

Now I have 3x given names, and the one I use is a contraction of the second. Fast forward 20yrs and I'm opening new accounts with the then lloyds-tsb JV through their internet banking portal which has been setup in the name I gave Beryl all those years ago. Some of these accounts apparently ended up with this ridiculous outfit that call themselves TSB. Some of them were mortgages, some were joint accounts, some both. Once the JV disbanded some of these accounts were handed off to TSB. One of them lay dormant for quite some time until my wife's mother expired and a cheque was eventually deposited. The rest we all know now.

I'm sure some will contend that all this is my fault for failing to comply with some spurious fraud legislation, but let's be honest, said legislation does a lot more to obstruct valid transactions than it does nefarious ones.

[chas49]

Moderator Message:
Three previous off-topic posts have been reported, and I have deleted them. Please stick to discussion appropriate to this board. (chas49)

[4lex]

And we have a result.

I exchanged a few emails with Claer's colleague Lindsay, and had arranged a call with her this evening my time. Ahead of that, to show willing, I made a last-ditched attempt on the phone with the bank, and got a very different response from the lady who answered the call. It took her ninety minutes, but she made it happen.

I don't believe in coincidence, and suspect Lindsay fixed it for me. She remained tight lipped on that particular point.

Thankyou for the suggestion.

Any thoughts on how best to approach recovery of the resultant losses?

Cheers,
Alex