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No UK bank will ever tell you why your account is frozen, and this is why: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/money-laundering-offences#:~:text=of%20an%20off

No UK bank will ever tell you why your account is frozen, and this is why: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/money-laundering-offences#:~:text=of%20an%20offence.-,Tipping%20Off,business%20in%20the%20regulated%20sector https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/money-laundering-offen.... Source: used to work on Monzo's financial crime team.

0des 5y ago
I'd love to read a thread where you and OP try to see maybe what happened, theoretically, in Minecraft of course.
- YawningAngel 5y ago
  I used to work there :)
gadders 5y ago
So 100% of account locks are due to money laundering, then? Not card theft, fraud, error or anything else?
stavros 5y ago
The link doesn't really clarify much for me, can you elaborate? Are you saying the GP laundered money?
- YawningAngel 5y ago
  I'm saying that the bank gets royally fucked if they ever tell anyone who is even suspected of money laundering anything, so as a result they simply don't tell anyone anything. Whether the GP actually did it or not isn't really relevant because banks would rather lose a customer than incur the regulator's ire.
  - stavros 5y ago
    Ah I see, thank you.
  - melevittfl 5y ago
    I’m sure you know this, but it’s not just regulator’s ire. It is a criminal act in and of itself to disclose that someone is a target of an investigation. And it’s not just a criminal act for the organisation, but the individual customer service agent can be held personally criminally liable for disclosing, even accidentally. So yeah, they have a really strong incentive not to tell you anything.
jagged-chisel 5y ago
Others replying here are jumping to conclusions. A frozen account could be due to any number of things. The customer service person may or may not have access to the reasons. In any case, it might be money laundering (from the bank’s perspective), therefore they can’t tell you anything. Of course this is ridiculous. Due process should exist, even when a private organization “accuses” someone of illegal activity.
- physicsguy 5y ago
  The law is really strict. If you look on reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance there's loads of people complaining that Monzo have frozen accounts and won't tell you way. In pretty much every circumstance, the person involved has been moving large amounts of money around through Crypto, so it's fairly obvious why they might flag that up as potential fraud/money laundering and cause an investigation.
  - dmje 5y ago
    I'm in the process of trying to open a UK business bank account for myself and two other directors. The hoops we have to jump through are insane.
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  Generally when your account is locked any complaint against that doesn't even touch customer service, but compliance department.
- xyst 5y ago
  It’s definitely their anti money laundering (AML) detection system kicking in. However it’s clearly getting false positives and their internal AML team is getting hit with a high amount of them thus causing the delays in resolving them. This is why you don’t build your own solutions to well solved problems.
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    I wonder if their system, by virtue of being modern, is too good and catches a lot of fraud that would otherwise remain undetected by legacy banks' systems? Not to mention, opening a Monzo account is much easier and can be done remotely, thus it could be attracting a lot of malicious activity that just wouldn't even reach the legacy banks because the laborious account opening process would filter those out?
tawaypol 5y ago
This happens in the US too. This kind of thing is why I'm using crypto for as much as I can, I always feel like my bank account might disappear one night and all the money in it will be tied up for a month or so. It's already happened to me once.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Nextgrid 5y ago
The concerning thing is that the other commenter says it took him a year and a complaint to the financial ombudsman to recover his money. False positives are one thing, but it shouldn't take a year to resolve?
- acallaghan 5y ago
  I suspect this is more to do with the financial regulation & the bodies that investigate these things, rather than Monzo.
  - smnrchrds 5y ago
    So if we pick any UK bank we will see the exact same issues?
    - Closi 5y ago
      Yes. HSBC - https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/hsbc-suddenly-blocked-bank-account-21327340 https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/hsbc-suddenly-blocked-bank-ac... Barclays - https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jan/22/barclays-took-my-440000-customers-caught-up-banks-de-risking-money-laundering-laws https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jan/22/barclays-took-... Natwest - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/natwest-locked-us-out-of-our-accounts-and-we-had-to-fight-for-miserly-payouts-prlmwsmj8 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/natwest-locked-us-out-of-...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

0des 5y ago

I'd love to read a thread where you and OP try to see maybe what happened, theoretically, in Minecraft of course.

YawningAngel 5y ago
I used to work there :)

gadders 5y ago

So 100% of account locks are due to money laundering, then? Not card theft, fraud, error or anything else?

stavros 5y ago

The link doesn't really clarify much for me, can you elaborate? Are you saying the GP laundered money?

YawningAngel 5y ago
I'm saying that the bank gets royally fucked if they ever tell anyone who is even suspected of money laundering anything, so as a result they simply don't tell anyone anything. Whether the GP actually did it or not isn't really relevant because banks would rather lose a customer than incur the regulator's ire.
- stavros 5y ago
  Ah I see, thank you.
- melevittfl 5y ago
  I’m sure you know this, but it’s not just regulator’s ire. It is a criminal act in and of itself to disclose that someone is a target of an investigation. And it’s not just a criminal act for the organisation, but the individual customer service agent can be held personally criminally liable for disclosing, even accidentally. So yeah, they have a really strong incentive not to tell you anything.

jagged-chisel 5y ago

Others replying here are jumping to conclusions. A frozen account could be due to any number of things. The customer service person may or may not have access to the reasons. In any case, it might be money laundering (from the bank’s perspective), therefore they can’t tell you anything. Of course this is ridiculous. Due process should exist, even when a private organization “accuses” someone of illegal activity.

physicsguy 5y ago
The law is really strict. If you look on reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance there's loads of people complaining that Monzo have frozen accounts and won't tell you way. In pretty much every circumstance, the person involved has been moving large amounts of money around through Crypto, so it's fairly obvious why they might flag that up as potential fraud/money laundering and cause an investigation.
- dmje 5y ago
  I'm in the process of trying to open a UK business bank account for myself and two other directors. The hoops we have to jump through are insane.
KptMarchewa 5y ago
Generally when your account is locked any complaint against that doesn't even touch customer service, but compliance department.
xyst 5y ago
It’s definitely their anti money laundering (AML) detection system kicking in. However it’s clearly getting false positives and their internal AML team is getting hit with a high amount of them thus causing the delays in resolving them. This is why you don’t build your own solutions to well solved problems.
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  I wonder if their system, by virtue of being modern, is too good and catches a lot of fraud that would otherwise remain undetected by legacy banks' systems? Not to mention, opening a Monzo account is much easier and can be done remotely, thus it could be attracting a lot of malicious activity that just wouldn't even reach the legacy banks because the laborious account opening process would filter those out?

tawaypol 5y ago

This happens in the US too. This kind of thing is why I'm using crypto for as much as I can, I always feel like my bank account might disappear one night and all the money in it will be tied up for a month or so. It's already happened to me once.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Nextgrid 5y ago

The concerning thing is that the other commenter says it took him a year and a complaint to the financial ombudsman to recover his money. False positives are one thing, but it shouldn't take a year to resolve?

acallaghan 5y ago
I suspect this is more to do with the financial regulation & the bodies that investigate these things, rather than Monzo.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  So if we pick any UK bank we will see the exact same issues?
  - Closi 5y ago
    Yes. HSBC - https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/hsbc-suddenly-blocked-bank-account-21327340 https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/hsbc-suddenly-blocked-bank-ac... Barclays - https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jan/22/barclays-took-my-440000-customers-caught-up-banks-de-risking-money-laundering-laws https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jan/22/barclays-took-... Natwest - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/natwest-locked-us-out-of-our-accounts-and-we-had-to-fight-for-miserly-payouts-prlmwsmj8 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/natwest-locked-us-out-of-...

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]