Nationwide blocked my disabled brother’s vital trust account
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Without warning, we couldn’t access the money left to him by our late mother. My brother and I are trustees for a Nationwide trust account left by our late mother 14 years ago to support our disabled brother. Nationwide recently wrote to say it intended to close this account and required the original trust document and the HMRC registration.
![[Anna Tims]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/08/Anna_Tims,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Meanwhile, without warning, it put a security block on the account. We immediately took the required documents to the local branch. That was nearly three weeks ago, but the account has not been restored and Nationwide won’t tell us when we will receive the funds.
VG, Stratford-upon-Avon. Nationwide’s outrageous behaviour is causing your brother distress, you tell me. His laptop, which he relies on, has broken and can’t be replaced without a top-up from the funds, and you can’t book a long-awaited treat to see his beloved Manchester United at Old Trafford.
A number of banks have quietly been divesting themselves of trust accounts, partly, it seems, because of the complexity and cost imposed by anti-money-laundering laws. Nationwide says this is to give its customers “better services”! To this end your type of account – used, it says, by a tiny fraction of customers – is due to become obsolete.
Its initial response to me was disingenuous. It said it gave you the required 90 days’ notice and put a block on the account while it awaited beneficiary details. As soon as it received the information, the account was reopened. Baloney! You say the only time you were asked for information was in the letter announcing the closure, and you duly provided the documents. Since then, your repeated attempts to find out why it was blocked, and when it would be reinstated, elicited generic guff about money-laundering rules.
