Partially upheld: payment blocking and inappropriate information handling complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs L complained that Santander blocked an international payment to her son and requested excessive personal information to remove the block. Santander's fraud detection systems flagged the payment as it involved transferring almost the full account balance. During three telephone calls on 29 September, Mrs L became distressed and disclosed detailed personal medical information. The agents failed to clarify that they only needed confirmation of doctor's appointments, leading Mrs L to believe she needed to send her full medical file, including medication details, hospital letters, and surgical assessments. The ombudsman upheld the payment block as reasonable but found Santander's agents should have better managed the information gathering process and clarified what was actually needed. The ombudsman awarded £250 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Santander was entitled to block the payment as it involved transferring almost the full account balance to a third party, which triggered fraud detection systems. However, the ombudsman found that Santander's agents failed to manage the information gathering process appropriately. When Mrs L began disclosing detailed personal medical information that had not been requested, the agents should have stopped her. Furthermore, when a misunderstanding arose about uploading 'messages from her doctor', the agents should have clarified that they only needed confirmation of appointments, not full medical records. The agents' failure to clarify what information was actually needed resulted in Mrs L providing extensive sensitive medical documentation including medication details, hospital letters, and surgical assessments, which went far beyond what was necessary to verify the payment.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website