Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Nucleus Financial Services Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mr B requested withdrawal of his stocks and shares ISA with Nucleus on 18 June 2024, asking for urgent processing. He also requested removal of his adviser and needed to update his bank details. Nucleus completed the withdrawal and closure by 9 July 2024 (14 working days total), with the process involving adviser removal, bank detail verification (4 working days), and investment sale and settlement. Mr B complained that the process took too long and that Nucleus had misled him about timescales. The ombudsman found that Nucleus's procedures were reasonable, including its decision to verify bank details before proceeding with the sale to prevent fraud, and that the overall timeframe was within industry standards and did not constitute misleading information.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Nucleus's steps in the withdrawal process were not unreasonable and were carried out promptly. The updating of bank details and associated security checks were not standard parts of an ISA withdrawal but were necessary to prevent fraud and ensure funds went to the correct account. The total time of 14 working days was within industry standards of up to 15 working days for ISA liquidations. Nucleus's decision to complete bank verification before proceeding with the sale was reasonable as proceeding simultaneously could indicate fraud risk and potentially result in funds being sent to an unverified account. Regarding timescales communicated, the call transcript indicated Nucleus mentioned 'four weeks' to Mr B, and even if Mr B's recollection of 'up to two weeks' were accepted, the actual completion within two weeks from bank verification would not constitute misleading information.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website