Upheld: Service failures generally complaint against The Royal Bank of Scotland Public Limited Company (RBS)

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S complained that RBS treated her unfairly when it blocked two large payments to solicitors and required her to visit a branch to resolve the issue, despite her mobility difficulties and hearing impairment. RBS initially paid £110 compensation for incorrectly advising her to bring divorce papers and for excessive time dealing with the fraud team. The ombudsman found that RBS's fraud controls and branch visit requirement were reasonable given the circumstances, but upheld the complaint because RBS failed to inform Mrs S that the account restriction had been lifted and her scheduled callback was no longer needed. The ombudsman awarded an additional £150 compensation, bringing the total to £260, and noted that RBS has since logged Mrs S's vulnerabilities for future support.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while RBS's decision to block the payments and request a branch visit was reasonable given the fraud concerns and high-value transactions to different recipients, RBS failed to inform Mrs S that the restriction had been lifted and that the scheduled callback was no longer required. The ombudsman rejected arguments that RBS breached the Equality Act or Payment Services Regulations, finding that RBS acted with legitimate fraud concerns and that attending branch was the quickest and most effective resolution. However, the ombudsman recognized that RBS incorrectly advised Mrs S to bring divorce papers and failed to communicate when the issue was resolved, causing unnecessary distress and inconvenience.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website