Yorkshire Building Society

[Nemo]

They closed a vicar's account after he complained about them getting involved in the Pride movment. He suggested that they should stick to banking:

Urgent calls to change financial regulations are growing as more people find themselves the victim of banking “cancel culture”, due to their political and social beliefs.

Reverend Richard Fothergill, a customer of Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) for 17 years, had his account closed days after writing to the bank to complain about its public messaging during Pride month.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/b ... r-AA1diOpc

Banks/Building Societies preaching ethics -

[Nimrod103]

They closed a vicar's account after he complained about them getting involved in the Pride movment. He suggested that they should stick to banking:

Urgent calls to change financial regulations are growing as more people find themselves the victim of banking “cancel culture”, due to their political and social beliefs.

Reverend Richard Fothergill, a customer of Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) for 17 years, had his account closed days after writing to the bank to complain about its public messaging during Pride month.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/b ... r-AA1diOpc

Banks/Building Societies preaching ethics -

Are they preaching ethics, or insisting that their view of society is the only acceptable one and must be supported by their customers?

[Nemo]

Are they preaching ethics, or insisting that their view of society is the only acceptable one and must be supported by their customers?

Both by the look of it.

I think of it as liberal fascism that seems to be growing.

Orwell called it Groupthink.

[GoSeigen]

This is an investing forum. Take politics somewhere else please.

GS

[Nemo]

This is an investing forum. Take politics somewhere else please.

It's not politics. I'm just warning people what could happen with your bank or building society if you say the wrong thing. The vicar in question just filled in a 'how are we doing questionare', something that I get all the time. He just said that the YBS should stick to looking after people's money, quite a sensible view.

Under the Money Laundering Regulations (of which I used to be regulated by) it is very easy to find that someone has possibly created some suspicion and take action, all without having to give some reason. This may just be the start of something:

Farage fears MI5 helped shut down his bank accounts

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/f ... r-AA1dj7J5

Just be careful with what you say to any financial institution - they are all under a legal obligation to make a secret report to The National Crime Agency about you. All they need is a 'suspicion':

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/ ... ty-reports

Not politics, just sensible advice to be careful.

[GoSeigen]

It's not investment. Take it to the Current Affairs board please.

GS

[Nemo]

GS - This is not an investment board. Savings in banks and building societies are different from investments.

I'm glad I noticed the vicer's problems. I've just had a questionare from The Coventry and was going to criticise their internal transfer policy. I won't bother now.

A friend in the USA saya that financial institutions there are closing people's accounts without explanation. It seems that this is a trend that is coming to the UK:

Guardian Money can reveal that the numbers of people being given the boot by their bank appear to have increased sharply. And Samuel (he didn’t want us to use his full name) is the latest person to be on the receiving end of this Kafkaesque treatment. Like many of those affected by this, he believes he is a victim of discrimination.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/ ... xplanation

Don't give them the slightest excuse

[Gerry557]

If it's any use, YBS stopped everyone accessing their accounts yesterday.

I didn't say anything positive or negative

I'm back in today but maybe I shouldn't complain...... Just in case.

[Dod101]

It is quite possible of course that there is more to this than is evident in what we have read here.

Dod

[Lootman]

I would have thought that any financial institution can terminate a customer, and for a variety of reasons. I have had a credit card closed without me asking for that, and had the credit limit lowered on another.

The cause could be a change in my credit history or score, or the bank may change its risk criteria. Or they may cull their 5% least profitable customers annually.

As for closing an account because of a customer's non-financial behaviour, perhaps they perceive a correlation between such behaviour and financial risk or profitability. I can easily imagine not wanting to do business with someone who is a communist or fascist agitator, for example. And in my landlording days there were certain professions and political persuasions I would not rent to.

In other words you cannot discriminate but you can be discriminating, except for protected classes of people perhaps.

[Nemo]

It is quite possible of course that there is more to this than is evident in what we have read here.

Quite possible.

This guy is a barrister and has a popular YouTube channel. He specifically refers to the vicar and Farage cases. Quite an interesting summary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GadxGwdXjw

However, my advice is still don't give them any excuse.

Before I retired last year I was a partner in a firm of Chartered Accountants and was in charge of money laundering policy wthin that partnership. For the previous three years or so, we were bombarded with amendments to money laundering by The Institute of Chartered Accountants, who in turn were being pressured by the National Crime Agency. They were raising the bar all the time and it looks like some institutions are paranoid about the sightest risk or dissent. Last year I opened another current account just in case I upset the bank that I had been with for years.

You have been warned!

[mc2fool]

GS - This is not an investment board.

Yes it is, it's the Banking Sector board under Sectors & General Share Dealing. You know, for discussing share dealing within the banking sector, and I hope we can all agree that "share dealing" indicates "investment".

Savings in banks and building societies are different from investments.

Indeed they are, and the place for discussing savings in banks and building societies is the Bank Accounts Savings & ISAs board.

[GoSeigen]

GS - This is not an investment board.

Yes it is, it's the Banking Sector board under Sectors & General Share Dealing. You know, for discussing share dealing within the banking sector, and I hope we can all agree that "share dealing" indicates "investment".

Savings in banks and building societies are different from investments.

Indeed they are, and the place for discussing savings in banks and building societies is the Bank Accounts Savings & ISAs board.

Thank you mc2fool. I reported the OP but nothing was done so the only option was to say something. As you say is a board for discussion of bank securities: bonds, shares etc. There was no investment angle to the discussion either in the OP or follow-ups. As such it is OFF TOPIC for this board.

GS

[Lootman]

Before I retired last year I was a partner in a firm of Chartered Accountants and was in charge of money laundering policy wthin that partnership. For the previous three years or so, we were bombarded with amendments to money laundering by The Institute of Chartered Accountants, who in turn were being pressured by the National Crime Agency. They were raising the bar all the time and it looks like some institutions are paranoid about the sightest risk or dissent. Last year I opened another current account just in case I upset the bank that I had been with for years.

You have been warned!

I recently wanted to deposit some cash into my son's bank account. I had done this successfully a few times before, but not in the last few years. I was told I could not do that because of AML rules and instead had to do a transfer, or else write a cheque.

I did not think too much about it at the time but maybe even the act of trying to deposit cash into somebody else's account could be deemed suspect.

As it happens I have current accounts with two banks and had been thinking of closing the one I use less. Now I think I may keep both of them, just in case.

[Nemo]

As it happens I have current accounts with two banks and had been thinking of closing the one I use less. Now I think I may keep both of them, just in case.

Very wise.

I've found that many of these replies to 'how are we doing' are sorted by AI. Besides Pride the vicar mentioned religion and I suspect that shot him to the top of the list. That would be all the 'careful consideration' YBS would need to close the account.

The people that you talk to in branch would not be properly trained and just pass messages up the line to the money laundering/reporting manager. You can imagine how stories can be distorted by the time they passed through a few hands. Best say as little as possible and don't fill in automated forms with comments. Everyone in these organizations will have some form of target to make reports. I had to send in the numbers every year to the Institute.

[chas49]

Moderator Message:
I have just seen the report. Moderators do not spend all their day on this board. I have no idea whether any other moderator has seen the report earlier but it is unlikely that they would ignore a report. Reporting is the correct thing to do, what is NOT required is to discuss the 'error' at length on the reported topic. And comment on moderator action (or inaction) is specificially barred.

The topic is now in the right place.

No further discussion of this issue is required

(chas49)