Not upheld: fraud prevention and account control complaint against TSB Bank plc

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H complained that TSB failed to prevent her aunt Ms X from stealing her inheritance by withdrawing all funds from a savings account opened in Miss H's name. Ms X had been instructed to open a trust account but instead opened a Young Saver account that gave her full control. Years later, Ms X withdrew all the money and closed the account. When Miss H discovered this at age 18, she complained to TSB and subsequently to the FOS. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that the account terms explicitly allowed the account opener full control and that TSB had no reasonable basis to refuse the withdrawal request or suspect misuse.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that the Young Saver account terms explicitly allowed the adult opener full control over withdrawals with no restrictions. TSB had no reasonable basis to refuse Ms X's withdrawal request, as she was the only authorized person to manage the account. The responsibility for the level of control Ms X had over the money lay with the mechanisms that dispersed the inheritance, not with TSB. Even if fraud protections applied, the transactions would not meet the criteria for reimbursement as they were authorized by the account holder of record.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website