Sadly the Nanny state extends far beyond government and local authority rules and regulations, it is also highly prevalent within the private sector.
Nanny's chums in HSBC have taken it upon themselves to prevent customers from making large sum cash withdrawals, unless the hapless customers can provide evidence of what they intend to use the money for.
Listeners have told
Radio 4's Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.
HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.
Stephen Cotton went to his local HSBC branch this month to
withdraw £7,000 from his instant access savings account to pay back a
loan from his mother.
A year before, he had withdrawn a larger sum in cash from HSBC without a problem.
But this time it was different, as he told Money Box:
"When
we presented them with the withdrawal slip, they declined to give us the
money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory explanation
for what the money was for. They wanted a letter from the person
involved."
Mr Cotton says the staff refused to tell him how much he
could have: "
So I wrote out a few slips. I said, 'Can I have £5,000?'
They said no. I said,
'Can I have £4,000?' They said no. And then I
wrote one out for £3,000 and they said, '
OK, we'll give you that.' "
He asked if he could return later that day to withdraw
another £3,000, but he was told he could not do the same thing twice in
one day.
Hardly "instant access" is it?
He wrote to complain to HSBC about the new rules and also that he had not been informed of any change.
The bank said it did not have to tell him. "
As this was not a
change to the Terms and Conditions of your bank account, we had no need
to pre-notify customers of the change."
Such arrogance!
Now that this has become public, HSBC has buckled (as Nanny always does when she is exposed to ridicule and contempt) and is changing the policy:
"We ask our customers about the purpose of large
cash withdrawals when they are unusual and out of keeping with the
normal running of their account. Since last November, in some instances
we may have also asked these customers to show us evidence of what the
cash is required for.
The reason being we have an obligation to protect our
customers, and to minimise the opportunity for financial crime. However,
following feedback, we are immediately updating guidance to our
customer facing staff to reiterate that it is not mandatory for
customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash withdrawals,
and on its own, failure to show evidence is not a reason to refuse a
withdrawal. We are writing to apologise to any customer who has been
given incorrect information and inconvenienced."
So long as the customer can prove his/her identity and so long as Nanny does not have reason to believe that the withdrawal is being made under duress, then it is not Nanny's business what the money will be used for.
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