Nationwide Building Society has explained its cash deposit policies after a customer expressed their frustration when they were told in a branch that they couldn’t deposit a small sum of money. The customer queried over social media: “I would be grateful if you could explain why branch staff say we cannot bank a small amount of cash (less than £100 Xmas money) on behalf of our disabled adult son.”
They also mentioned that the staff insisted his son “has to present his card in person” due to anti-money laundering rules. Nationwide responded, clarifying: “We will only be able to accept cash deposit from the account holder themselves. If your son needs assistance managing their accounts, you can look at setting up a power of attorney via your local branch.”
The customer repeated their query about what was the reason behind this policy, to which Nationwide confirmed: “I can confirm that the branch were correct, and that this will be due to money laundering regulations.” On their website, Nationwide has a policy statement asserting it has “no tolerance” for activities at high risk of money laundering.
The guidance states: “We monitor payments and transactions, and where necessary we will stop payments, close accounts and relationships where activity is suspicious or cannot be appropriately explained. Potential relationships will be declined, and existing relationships terminated (where lawful to do so), where the level of economic crime risk is outside of our risk appetite.”
Nationwide customers have the option to deposit up to £5,000 each day into each account they hold over the counter in branch. This typically requires a current account card and proof of identification, such as a passport or driving licence.
When using an in-branch cash machine, customers can deposit up to £2,500 in cash and up to 90 notes per transaction. The maximum amount for a single cheque is £2,000, and up to £50,000 can be deposited by cheque.
If making a payment using a cash machine outside a branch, customers are provided with an envelope from the machine to put their cash and cheques into, which is then fed back into the machine. Using this method, you can pay in up to £2,500 a day, with up to 30 notes per envelope. You can deposit up to £2,000 by cheque.
Customers also have the option to pay into their current account by sending cheques by post. Nationwide advises against sending cash in the post due to security reasons.