Incomplete SAR due to 6 years

[May Fly]

I'm glad I found this place, looks like there's plenty of good stuff on it.

 

I made a SAR a couple of months ago. The bank intially replied they could find no details of the account and asked for more details. I found a letter from them dated April 2006 confirming the closing of the account. I sent a copy of that letter.

 

I've had the SAR back now, but the bank says that they do not have any records for the account prior to May 2005 as records prior to that date have been destroyed.

 

Now, I'm not in any dispute with this bank, so I can't think of any reason they may want to withhold any info, but I thought banks were obliged to keep records for 6 years after the account was closed. By that, I mean they should keep _all_ records for the account until 6 years after the account closure.

 

Is that right?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Why did you do the SAR in the first place?

[May Fly]

Hi, for proof of payment/purchase of various things.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

WAS there any dispute then?

[broken arrow]

They are keeping records, if the account was closed in Apr 2006, then 6 years will be Apr 2012, after you closed the account there would have been no data processed, I imagine the only data they will have is, from May 2005 until closure April 2006.

[May Fly]

There's never been any dispute with this bank

 

They are keeping records, if the account was closed in Apr 2006, then 6 years will be Apr 2012, after you closed the account there would have been no data processed, I imagine the only data they will have is, from May 2005 until closure April 2006.

 

That's how it looks, judging from what they sent, and what they say.

 

My understanding was that they had to keep the whole set of records until 6 years after the closure/last transaction, rather than, after the account closure, being able to destroy each record as it became 6 years old. I thought that was due to money laundering regs. Am I wrong about that? Are they able, the day after the account is closed, to destroy all records 6 or more years old, and then destroy records as they becomes 6 years old? (which is what they seem to have done?)

 

Or come to think of it, are they allowed to destroy all records 6 or more years old, regardless of whether the account is closed or not?

 

Obviously, if you have an account for say 17 years, and then close it after an argument about say charges, and then do a SAR to look at the record of charges, its a bit of a shock to find they destroyed everything 6 years or older. I know the regs are about money laundering, but destroying records prevents their access for any reason

Edited May 16, 2011 by May Fly