Not upheld: Other regulated complaint complaint against Nationwide Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

X complained that Nationwide wrongly accused him of using his personal current account for business purposes. Nationwide had identified 26 payments to X's limited company, 15 online marketplace credits, and 19 cash deposits over six months, and required X to cease business-related transactions. X claimed all transactions were personal: payments for work on his own vehicles, personal item sales, and his mother's contributions to shared bills. The ombudsman found Nationwide acted reasonably in forming its view based on the volume and nature of transactions, the connection to X's automotive business, and the high-risk nature of the sector. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Nationwide is entitled to decide who it offers accounts to and on what basis. While X disagreed with Nationwide's characterisation of his transactions as business-related, the ombudsman was not persuaded Nationwide acted unreasonably. The decision was based on multiple factors: the significant volume of payments to X's own limited company, cash deposits potentially related to business, online sales credits in X's industry, and the automotive sector being high-risk for fraud. The ombudsman noted that transactions need not exceed daily limits to be reasonably flagged as business use, and that frequent or regular transactions connected to X's limited company could reasonably be seen as business-related. Nationwide's warning gave X an opportunity to demonstrate compliance or adjust his account usage.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website