Not upheld: account tracing and record retention complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S complained to Santander after discovering an old passbook from a building society it had acquired, showing a balance of over £3,000 with the last transaction in January 2006. Santander could not locate any record of the account despite conducting comprehensive searches across its systems. The ombudsman found that the 20-year gap between the last transaction and Mrs S's inquiry, combined with Santander's six-year record retention policy, suggested the account was likely closed before acquisition or outside the retention period. The ombudsman upheld Santander's position that it had conducted reasonable searches and done all it could to locate the account, and did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that although Mrs S's frustration was understandable, the 20-year gap between the last transaction and her inquiry suggested the account was likely closed before Santander's acquisition or outside its six-year retention period. The possession of a passbook does not prove an account remained active, as accounts can be closed without returning the passbook. Santander's comprehensive searches across multiple systems and identifiers demonstrated it had done all it reasonably could to locate the account. The absence of any record on Santander's systems, combined with the age of the last transaction, indicated the account was not transferred to Santander or was closed prior to 2020.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website