Nationwide (Portman) Statements

[topgeeza]

Hi,

 

My brother used to hold a savings account with the Portman Building Society which has now merged with the Nationwide. He went into a Nationwide branch to ask for copies of statements of his savings accounts for the past 3 years but was told by the branch staff that he could not have these as 'there would be no record of his old Portman statements following the merger'! I find this unbelievable!

 

Can anyone advise if by law they have to maintain records in such instances?

 

Will he be able to request statements under a Subject Access Request or Data Access Request? If so, will this be under the Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information act?

 

Many thanks in advance,

Neil.

[BankFodder]

this is total rubbish. The problem is either that the branch staff are either misinformed, poorly trained, committed to preventing any bank charges claims or else they simply just don't care.

 

On the other hand I think that your brother is probably a bit naive believing that he can go into a branch of a bank and get straight answers on such a troublesome matter as the provision of bank statements.

 

He should put in an SAR and ask for all data held by them in any form on any matter going back the any period. We are starting to hear lots of instances now we're banks are trying to say that they are not holding bank statements by in fact they are now holding the information in a different form.

 

I'm quite sure that one of the ways that the banks believe that they will defeat court least frustrate the forthcoming bank charges repayment scheme will be by denying their customers access to their own personal data.

[topgeeza]

Thanks BankFodder, your clarification is greatly appreciated