FCA fines Santander £32.8m for bereavement process failings

More than 40,000 customers affected

Sophie King
clock • 2 min read

Santander has been fined £32.8m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to process the accounts and investments of deceased customers effectively.

According to the regulator, 40,428 customers were directly affected because the bank had failed to transfer a total of £183m of funds to beneficiaries when it should have done. In some cases, the FCA said, funds were held for many years, depriving beneficiaries of the use of them for "a considerable amount of time". The regulator also said the bank failed to disclose information relating to the issues with the probate and bereavement process to the FCA after it became aware of them, thereby breaching Principle 11 between November 2013 and May 2015. Santander also breached Principle...

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