Not upheld: fraud protection and account monitoring - failure to prevent or recover fraudulent payment complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr C complained that Santander failed to protect him from losing £30,000 paid to a Santander customer account as a result of fraud in November 2018. The ombudsman determined it could only consider Santander's actions from 31 January 2019 onwards. The ombudsman found that the funds had been spent away from the recipient's account within November 2018, meaning any monitoring or recovery actions by Santander after 31 January 2019 could not have prevented the loss or recovered the funds. Therefore, the complaint was not upheld as Santander was not the cause of Mr C's loss within the period the ombudsman could consider.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman's jurisdiction was limited to considering Santander's actions from 31 January 2019 onwards. Since the funds had been spent away from the recipient's account by November 2018, any actions or omissions by Santander after 31 January 2019 regarding account monitoring could not have been the cause of Mr C's loss. The funds were already gone and unrecoverable by the time the ombudsman could consider Santander's conduct.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website