Not upheld: account restrictions and fraud prevention procedures complaint against Lloyds Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr A, who suffered a stroke while abroad in April 2025 and was unable to return to the UK, complained that Lloyds Bank unreasonably blocked his account and restricted his ability to make international payments. After recovering access to his online banking through a security code, Mr A made two successful payments but was blocked when attempting a third payment. Lloyds cited fraud concerns and required in-person branch verification, which Mr A could not complete due to health and geographical constraints. The ombudsman found that the combination of account activity changes (address, phone, email, new devices) and variations in the caller's speech patterns presented sufficient fraud risk indicators to justify Lloyds' protective measures, and that the bank had properly followed its legal and regulatory obligations. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Lloyds had legitimate grounds to block the account based on fraud risk indicators, including multiple changes to registered details (address, phone, email), new devices added to the profile, variations in the caller's speech and accent, and indications of larger future payments. While acknowledging Mr A's circumstances and the legitimate explanations for these factors, the ombudsman concluded that the combination of these characteristics presented sufficient fraud risk to justify Lloyds' intervention. The bank was entitled and obliged to carry out such checks under its legal and regulatory obligations for anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and fraud prevention. The ombudsman found no evidence that Lloyds failed to follow its own procedures.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website