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

Decision detail

Summary

S, a company represented by its director Mr M, complained that Monzo blocked two transfers in February 2026 when Mr M was attempting to transfer funds for a car purchase. The first transfer from his personal account to the business account was blocked at 10:27 and unblocked by 11:23am after verification. A second transfer to his credit card was blocked at 12:50pm and unblocked by 1:11pm. Mr M found the repeated blocks stressful and did not complete the car purchase that day. The ombudsman found that Monzo's automated fraud prevention systems were justified in flagging both transfers as high-risk due to the substantial amount and nature of the payment, and that the processing times were reasonable and fair. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman reasoned that banks must have automated fraud prevention systems to protect customer funds, and it is not reasonable to expect manual review of each payment. The payment was high-risk due to its substantial amount and nature (car purchase). The first verification taking under an hour was fair and reasonable, and the second block of a different transfer was justified despite involving the same funds, with the 20-minute resolution time indicating the first verification was considered. The ombudsman noted Mr M had sufficient time to complete the purchase and that Monzo cannot be blamed for his decision not to proceed due to stress.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website