A bank had turned down an application for a small business who were looking to open a "feeder" bank account.
What happened
A small business making car parts complained that their bank had turned down their application for a "feeder" bank account, leaving them unable to apply for a bounce back loan. The directors were unhappy that the account application appeared to be subject to a credit check, when applications for the bounce back loan weren’t.
What we said
We said that the bank had the discretion to decide the basis on which it would accept new customers. So while bounce back loan applications weren’t subject to a credit check, the bank was entitled to assess the business against its usual criteria to open an account.
We checked that the bank was applying its processes consistently, and we reviewed how it had handled the business’s application. We thought the bank had handled the assessment fairly and could see why it hadn’t met the bank’s criteria. So we didn’t think the bank had acted unfairly and didn’t ask it to do anything more.