Not upheld: service failure - failure to amend nominated bank account details complaint against Coventry Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M complained that Coventry Building Society failed to change his nominated bank account (NBA) associated with his ISA, which he said prevented him from booking a flight on 23 December. He also complained about staff conduct and that the change was not reflected in his online banking. The ombudsman found that on 23 December Mr M did not respond to agent messages so the request was not completed, and on 24 December the NBA was successfully changed and confirmed through e-chat, telephone calls, and a test payment that reached the correct account. The ombudsman was unable to consider the complaint handling element as it falls outside the FCA's regulated activities. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Coventry did not make a mistake on 23 December because the e-chat history showed Mr M did not respond to agent messages, so the request was not completed. On 24 December, the NBA was successfully changed and confirmed to Mr M. The ombudsman was satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the NBA was changed on 24 December based on Coventry's IT review and Mr M's later confirmation. The test payment of 1p was confirmed to have reached the correct account by the receiving bank. The ombudsman could not consider the complaint handling element as it falls outside the FCA's regulated activities. The ombudsman was sympathetic to Mr M's circumstances but found no evidence of wrongdoing by Coventry.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website