do bankworkers have access to accounts

Just found out that the wife of my competitor works in bank where I have business bank account. Would she have access to my account without my permission. I was recently refused a business loan a couple of days after being approved and I am now wondering would this explain it.

If she is in branch banking she probably has access to all customer accounts, if it necessary to do her job.

I would expect the credit crunch has more to do with a loan being pulled, than your competitors wife working in the bank.

I no longer work in banking but from what I'm hearing from friends still working in the area, a number of loan offers are being withdrawn or ammended.

I stand to be corrected but from my own experience back in the day. Yes bank workers would have access to accounts but it depends what department she is in. If she isnt in a branch, they would keep a record as to who looks and check occassionally as to their reasons for accessing that data!
I doubt though that in the days of data protection and compliance that she would have had a sway in refusing your loan as if you requested a copy of your file you would say anything done on it!

Yes, most bank staff in a branch or business centre would have access to an account. However depending on her role, unless she is involved in lending she might have had no part in the decision making process and if there was something wrong with your accounts, I'm sure your relationship manager or lending manager would have found out anyway, after all, that is their job

If you still feel something is amiss, you should ask your relationship manager why the loan was refused. If you are still not satisfied after that then you should make a complaint in writing. Most system access in banks is password controlled so there should be an electronic audit trail of who looked at what in the bank