Data protection joint bank account

Hello,

I am trying to find out some information on behalf of my brother.

He has just submitted a Subject Access Request letter to Nat West Bank regarding a joint mortgage and joint bank account he held several years ago with his wife, as he is in dispute with them over debts that were accrued on the accounts after he was assured from the bank that the account had effectively been "frozen". He and his wife separated (but did not divorce) around 8 years ago, very acrimoniously, and now he does not have any contact with her and has no idea where she is.

Nat West have replied to the SAR stating that they cannot release any information without her consent. The account was in joint names and each one of them could sign cheques etc independently of the other.

I do understand that information released under the Data Protection Act must not identify another person without their consent, however is there also not some provision that this must be "reasonable"? There is absolutely no way on earth that even if my brother did manage to trace her that she would ever give permission for him to do anything!

If the bank is within it's rights to refuse him any access to his information on this basis, could they not supply him with the information but with any personal reference to her blanked out?

I have trawled the internet trying to find a similar scenario and solution but so far with no luck. I am sure that this situation has arisen many times.

Any advice or help on the way forward would be very gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance,
Karen.

Assuming by the mention of NatWest, you are UK based. This is an Irish site ad while many Data Protection legislation principles may be similar, you may be better off asking this on a UK based forum.