Reference Case Number: FOI10185
Freedom of Information: Right to know request:
Could you please provide me with the data refereed to above, viz data on the number of instances where banks close accounts due to financial crime. Can you please provide this data on an annualised basis going back 10 years. If possible please provide this data for each of the big four banks, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and NatWest Group. If this is not possible please provide the data on an industry wide basis.
FCA response:
Included within this response is the number of customers exited due to financial crime reasons for the Retail and Wholesale Bank portfolios, which includes the data for the four big banks requested. However, we are unable to provide data at the individual firm level as this constitutes ‘confidential information’ for the purposes of section 348 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), which the FCA has received in the discharge of its public functions. We are therefore exempted from the duty to disclose this information under section 44 of FOIA. For more information on why this exemption applies, please see Annex B.
The data is sourced from the Annual Financial Crime Data return (REP-CRIM) submitted by approximately 247 firms within the Retail and Wholesale Bank portfolios. The data provided by firms is in response to the specific question “Please provide the number of customer relationships refused or exited for financial crime reasons during the reporting period” on REP-CRIM.
We expect firms to include data where “the firm ceased to do business where financial crime was the principal driver behind the decision”. ‘Relationships exited’ also covers criminal behaviour by the customer or client where such behaviour has a financial element, e.g. benefits fraud.
Please note REP-CRIM was only introduced in 2016/2017 and therefore we cannot go back as far as 10 years. The available data is as follows:
| Financial Year | Number of accounts closed |
|---|---|
| 2016/17* | 45,091* |
| 2017/18 | 72,699 |
| 2018/19 | 189,801 |
| 2019/20 | 229,350 |
| 2020/21 | 340,133 |
| 2021/22 | 343,350 |
| 2022/23** | 185,654** |
* Figures for the first reporting year above may not reflect the true picture as the firms were asked to submit the returns on a best endeavour basis allowing enough time to implement appropriate technological solutions or changes in order, where required, to provide the information requested.
Further confirmation of the FCA allowing firms to submit their first return on a best endeavour basis is set out in section 1.17 of the paper “Financial Crime Reporting: feedback on Chapter 6 of CP15/42 and final rules” [PS16/19: Financial Crime Reporting: feedback on Chapter 6 of CP15/42 and final rules (fca.org.uk)]. Section 2.7 details feedback from firms regarding the implementation of technological solutions or changes in order to provide the necessary information.
** We have not received all the submissions for 2022/23 yet but as at 11 May 2023 the data showed 185,654 customer exits across the Retail and Wholesale banking portfolios.