Not upheld: account blocking and closure; direct debit setup error complaint against Nationwide Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs L complained that Nationwide Building Society unfairly blocked and closed her accounts without notice, and that she experienced difficulty setting up a direct debit after the lending facility was withdrawn. Nationwide had blocked her accounts in January 2025 to conduct a review and requested 12 months of business bank statements and insurance-related information. Mrs L provided some information but refused to provide business statements, citing that the company was new and that she was accountable to HMRC and Companies House instead. The accounts were unblocked in early February 2025 but closed with notice in May 2025. The ombudsman found that Nationwide's review and closure decision were justified by legitimate legal and regulatory obligations, that their information requests were reasonable, and that Mrs L's refusal to provide the requested information did not require Nationwide to act differently. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Nationwide had legitimate grounds to carry out the review and block the accounts to comply with legal and regulatory responsibilities. The request for bank statements and insurance-related information was reasonable given the extent of business activity on the account. Mrs L's refusal to provide the requested information, combined with the substantive transactional activity, justified the account closure decision. The ombudsman accepted that Nationwide had broad commercial discretion and acted reasonably by providing notice before closure. Even if Mrs L could not provide the information due to data privacy concerns, this did not mean Nationwide should have acted differently given the circumstances.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website