Hi, found this........
The bank reference is the worst reference. Not only do they charge a fee of around £10 - £15.00 per status enquiry, they take an age to deliver them. Our method was to get the tenant to sign a standard letter, enclose a credit card number or tick a box saying that the fee could be taken from their account, saving you having to pay and send the original to the bank. As I said we will enclose the letters at the end of this document. Bank references can be bit confusing when you get the reply. For example if the bank returns a reply stating the person in question is good for the amount of £……. Per month - no problem. If the bank says they should be good for the amount, not a bad reference really. Should the bank say they are surprised to see the person in question having this amount of money taken from their account watch out. However, if they say they are surprised but as long as it is replacing current commitments then this could be fine as long as the person in question does just that. i.e. replaces one monthly rent with yours! Read the reply carefully. Remember banks will never be derogatory about the person they are replying about after all it is their customer, but a lot can be read into them.
Think it's from a Landlords site, not sure if it helps or not.
Regards.
Scott.
Bank Reference 
