Ulster Bank- Crazy money laundering regulations.

H

Hawthorn

Guest
I recently decided to "add" my husbands name to my current account in order to facilitate the lodging of cheques that were made payable to the both of us and stamped "account payee" only. My husband brought in his address and photographic I.D. to the branch and we completed the necessary forms. However the official in the Ulster Bank branch insisted that I also bring in new I.D. I pointed out that they already had this for the past two years. But he insisted that this was "procedure". as he couldn't locate my original I.D.!!! Unless I brought in new I.D. my husbands name could not be added to my account.
 
You shouldn't blame your bank/solicitor/accountant/tax advisor for implementing anti-money laundering regulations. They aren't doing it for the fun of it, nor are they making money by doing so. They're simply implementing the law of the land, as devised by our government. The only people that can do anything about it are our politicians.

Believe it or not, if Ulster Bank had lost or mislaid your husband's ID details, they were fully correct in asking you for a replacement. They must keep same on file for 5 years after you close your account and/or they stop dealing with you. That's what the law says. If a bank or professional ignores it, they are leaving themselves open to criminal prosecution.
 
Ah! It's around here somewhere.

I fully agree with the money laundering regulations. It's just that they already have my I.D. on file for the past two years from when I opened the account. Now they have lost it, where is it? Have they not a responsibility to take care of my private and personal and confidential information given to them in good faith. Will it turn up on a tiphead? Maybe they should spend a bit of time looking for it?
So it would appear that they may have been allowing me to operate my account illegally over the past two years seeing as they had no I.D. on file?
If it has been misfiled then technically they still have it, does the law actually state that it must be in my file or simply that the Ulster Bank must have it.
 
Re: Ah! It's around here somewhere.

Jaysus relax a little! I take it nothing was ever mislaid or misfiled in your own office!
 
Copies.

Ulster Banks response. "When the person was opening your account he/she should have kept a copy in the branch. I've searched everywhere and I can't find it". Its probably somewhere in our head office. The easiest thing would be to bring in new I.D."

Incidentally if you require coppies of old bank statements from the Ulster Bank they charge for them.
 
Re: Copies.

The easiest thing would be to bring in new I.D
Click to expand...
To which you presumably responded with your concerns as expressed earlier in the thread?
 
Yes, Yes, Yes.

I have maintained a savings account with the EBS Building Society for over 10 years. I recently received a letter from them asking me to bring in personal I.D. re anti-money laundering regulations for my account.
Does anyone know if EXISTING accounts were exempt from having to produce I.D. when the regulations were brought in or did all current customers have to lodge their I.D. as well.
 
Yes, Yes, Yes.

I don't think that any accounts are exempt as such and if an institution doesn't have sufficient information on file to comply with the money laundering regulations then they are entitled to seek it even from existing account holders as far as I know.
 
Re: Yes, Yes, Yes.

If you were a customer on 2 May 1995 then you are exempt, or more correctly EBS do not have to perform a Money Laundering check on you.
 
IFSRA

IFSRA have set up a Anti-money Laundering steering committe who has issued new guideline regarding identification. I believe the Financial Institutions have taken a "belt & braces" approach to these guidelines and now request identification for both new & existing customers. The penalties for not complying with the guidelines and the Criminal Justice Act 1994 are quite severe.
 
They could have asked nicely!

Well if this is the case, the EBS should have clarified their position instead of saying to me- "We regret, in the event of these documents not being provided, that there will be unavoidable delays up to and including the cessation of services to your account". I have never been asked for I.D.before as my account was opened over 10 years ago. Now I get this threathening letter out of the blue! What has happened to my good custom over the past 10 years. So much for their friendly mutual approach.
 
Re: They could have asked nicely!

Do let EBS know how you feel. Their board members email addresses are in the Annual Report on their website.
 
Re: They could have asked nicely!

Hi

I can think of a few other things to e-mail their Board of Directors about (crap mortgage & share account rates for a start !)....

For what it's worth .... customers may think it's a pain in the a$$ having to bring in a copy of their ID, or replace it if it's been lost ... try being the person in the Bank having to ask every customer for it, now that's a real pain in the a$$. Simply put, it's the law that your ID must be on file, so just had it over to the Bank etc without hastle & make everyones life a bit easier .... if you want to give someone grief, then direct it towards your politicans, as they are the ones who introduced this law !

BTW, interesting side point .... Ulster Bank have a reputation (from what I've heard from various mortgage brokers etc) for lost documentation, ranging from ID to HomeLoan Mortgage docments .... personally, I'd bet it's getting lost when it's sent off to Belfast !


Regards


G>


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Re: They could have asked nicely!

The reason UB are asking for ID is to prove that you are in fact the person that owns the account, in which Mr. X will be added to.

You could be any old person off the street who doesn't even OWN the account, giving 'permission' for Mr.X to be added to the current account. UB are protecting the person that the account actually belongs to, and are taking necessary action to prevent any fraud.

You should be glad that they are so 'security conscience'!
 
Read my original complaint./soc

But they know ME! I do business with them on a regular basis. They LOST my i.d. That's my complaint. Where is it? If Mrs X finds it, hopefully she isn't a doppleganger and uses it.
 
Read my original complaint./soc

I had a similar problem with Ulster Bank..we had an account manager, set up an account, a mortgage and spent quite an amount of time with the account manager over a 2 week period (took 2.5 hours to set up a joint bank account - no messing!!)... but the end result was that our photographic ID was lost too, and it meant taking more time from work and presenting it in person at the branch where the account was opened - and this was all within 2 weeks of first meeting the account manager..

On the upside, when we complained, we were put in touch with a customer service rep who regularly phones to check in that we're happy with the bank.. and she sorted all the outstanding issues on our behalf too, which was really appreciated...
 
It really happened.

I heard of a customer when asked for photographic ID brought in a picture of herself standing beside the grave of a family member (the grave had the family name on it).
 
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