Not upheld: Account closure without notice complaint against Monzo Bank Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H complained that Monzo Bank Limited unfairly closed her account and applied a CIFAS fraud marker against her name. On 16 April 2025, Miss H received a £550 credit from an unknown third party and transferred it to another account within 3 minutes, claiming she acted on a friend's direction. Monzo received a fraud report on 25 April 2025 and subsequently closed her account and applied a CIFAS marker. The ombudsman found that Monzo met the required standard of proof under CIFAS guidelines, which requires clear, relevant and rigorous evidence rather than proof beyond reasonable doubt. The ombudsman concluded that Miss H's receipt of unexpected funds from an unknown source and their swift transfer, combined with her inability to adequately explain the circumstances, constituted sufficient evidence of her involvement in fraudulent activity. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the CIFAS standard of proof, which requires clear, relevant and rigorous evidence such that the member could confidently report the conduct to the police, rather than proof beyond reasonable doubt. The ombudsman found that the receipt of funds from an unknown third party and their swift transfer within 3 minutes, combined with Miss H's inability to adequately explain why she shared her account details or why the funds needed to pass through her account, met this standard. The ombudsman was not persuaded by Miss H's arguments that lack of prior transaction history or absence of police contact demonstrated limited evidence of wrongdoing. The ombudsman concluded that Miss H, as the account holder, bore ultimate responsibility for managing the account correctly and should have been concerned about receiving unexpected funds from an unknown source.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website