Partially upheld: Service failures generally complaint against OakNorth Bank plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S opened what he intended to be a single 90 Day Notice account with OakNorth on 16 August 2020, but the bank's system created two accounts. After Mr S deposited large sums into one account, OakNorth discovered he had an existing profile and migrated both new accounts to it, generating new account numbers. This caused Mr S's funds to disappear from his online banking for approximately 24 hours, causing him extreme distress as he feared he had been victim of a scam. Although OakNorth provided an explanation email on 22 August 2020, the ombudsman found the bank should have warned Mr S before taking this action. The ombudsman upheld the complaint in part and ordered OakNorth to pay an additional £100 compensation (total £150) for the distress and inconvenience caused by the lack of prior warning.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while the initial opening of two accounts was not clearly the bank's error, and the automatic funding requests were reasonable, OakNorth acted unfairly by migrating the accounts to an existing profile without warning Mr S. The ombudsman determined that OakNorth should have known that funds would appear to disappear from Mr S's online banking and should have warned him of this and the timescale beforehand. Although OakNorth provided an explanation email on the afternoon of 22 August 2020, Mr S experienced a full day of extreme distress and worry about a potential scam involving a large sum of money. The £50 already paid was insufficient compensation for this distress and inconvenience.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website