Alliance & Leicester blank

Lord Gilmour, Victoria Brittain and Jeremy Corbyn are less than happy about the Palestine Solidarity Campaign being blanked by the Alliance and Leicester.

A&L owes Palestinian campaign group an explanation for closing bank account
By Victoria Brittain, Jeremy Corbyn and Ian Gilmour
Published: January 8 2005 02:00 | Last updated: January 8 2005 02:00

From Lord Gilmour of Craigmillar, Victoria Brittain and Jeremy Corbyn MP.

Sir, We are patrons of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a voluntary organisation established in 1982 to seek justice for the Palestinians. Since 1996 we have held a bank account with the Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank. Our account has always been in credit and we have never had any query or complaint from the bank concerning its conduct or our business.

In July 2004 we received a letter out of the blue from the bank giving us 30 days' notice to close the account. The only reason offered was that the bank was "no longer able to provide banking facilities to certain clubs and societies". We wrote back protesting, asking for an explanation for this abrupt action and for the bank to let us know which other clubs and societies had been treated similarly.

We claimed nearly £4,000 compensation of which half represented the out-of-pocket expenses for notifying our members and subscribers (some 2,750), stationery, printing and postage. The bank replied: "On this occasion we reserve our right not to disclose our reasons." It declined to comment on the status of other people's accounts and refused any compensation. The only concession was to extend our notice period from 30 to 60 days.

We took our complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (the Ombudsman). We wrote: "We feel we have been treated with contempt by the bank and that we deserve an explanation for why this action is being taken . . . we cannot understand why a bank which claims to wish to advance good community relations should behave with such utter lack of regard towards an organisation which is committed to seeking international justice and human rights and is based on cross-faith co-operation (we have Muslim, Christian and Jewish members as well as members of no religion)".

The Ombudsman's terse response was that " . . . your complaint does not appear to be one we could deal with because it is solely about the firm's legitimate use of its commercial judgment". Although the Ombudsman said it could deal with "maladministration" and "improper discrimination", its refusal to intervene in our case shows how supine a regulatory body it is.

The Alliance & Leicester claims to be "the UK's most customer-focused financial services organisation - bar none" and that "earning and retaining the trust and confidence of our customers must be a high priority for us". In its business relationships it says it seeks "fair dealing and high standards of business integrity". These claims ring hollow when set against the experience we have suffered at the hands of the bank.

As no credible, indeed any, explanation has been offered by the bank for the manner in which we have been treated, the inevitable suspicion is that the bank has succumbed to political pressure. Be this as it may, we believe the public deserves to be enlightened on how one of the country's leading high street banks chooses to operate and on the cavalier way in which the Ombudsman interprets its remit in handling complaints.

Ian Gilmour, Victoria Brittain, Jeremy Corbyn, Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, London WC1N 3XX