Mortgage company contacting bank for transaction details.

[Moral Ethos]

Last month I received a cheque from my household insurance in respect of a small claim only a few k. As per the mortgage agreement the cheque was made out to the mortgage company as well as myself. After talking to the mortgage company I sent them the cheque to be lodged to my mortgage account on the strict understanding that a cheque would be issued to me for the amount of the insurance claim. I sent the cheque to them over 3 weeks ago and this week I rang the mortgage company to chase up the cheque, which they had agreed to issue this week.

Today, I received a phone call from my bank saying that a person purporting to be from the mortgage company (the name matched a person I was dealing with) called them and enquired about transactions on my current account. They wanted to know if my mortgage payment was paid on the 3rd. Correctly the bank refused to give them this information and they called me immediately.

Questions: Can the mortgage company do this? Surely they know they cannot obtain this information.
Do I have any grounds for a complaint to the Financial regulator?

 

[bond-007]

I would think that the mortgage company has some serious questions to answer.
They should know that another bank will not and should not discuss a customers account without their permission. I would wonder if this is standard practice with mortgage companies and do banks give out this information freely to other banks?

I would be interested to hear opinions on this. I wonder is there a system to exchange information in place like the ICB?

At the very least I would think that the OP has grounds to complain to the mortgage company and if they don't give a decent answer take the matter to the FSO.

 

[Moral Ethos]

I would wonder if this is standard practice with mortgage companies and do banks give out this information freely to other banks?

I would hope not.

At the very least I would think that the OP has grounds to complain to the mortgage company and if they don't give a decent answer take the matter to the FSO.

Thanks, I have contacted the FSO who have given me the designated contact to address my complaint to.