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Two news items about banks caught my eye this morning, the first an item from Tuesday's Metro, the second an item from Tuesday's City AM, both having been acquired from Epsom Station, on diversion from my usual round.

The first item concerns NatWest, the bank formerly known as RBS, which, as recently as 2015 or so, was taking in huge amounts of cash, more than £300m, some of it in bin bags, from a small company called Fowler Oldfield, the premises of which are snapped above. The signs have come down, but the building is still there, on a rather shabby road in Bradford, gmaps reference 53.7847117,-1.7439331, a road containing an odd mixture of old and new properties, mostly commercial. Even the odd mill from days of old.

A company which has been liquidated but whose stuff is still visible at Companies House. Articles of association which seem to tell one nothing about the nature of the business. A form of balance sheet which, beyond suggesting a very modest operation, don't tell one much more. All duly audited by that pillar of the accounting industry, Grant Thornton.

I didn't get to find out where all this money was coming from.

For this dereliction of duty, NatWest have been fined a bit more than £250m, down from £400m because they pleaded guilty. In my innocence, I thought that this sort of thing was all long in the past.

The second item concerns UBS, the large Swiss bank. Their fine, in France, has just been cut on appeal to £1.5bn from £3.8bn. Clearly a much more serious matter, albeit foreign. The offence appears to have been soliciting clients at places like race tracks and cocktail parties, clients who had lots of money which they wanted to hide from the tax man. So not necessarily money in bin bags, but not that far off.

To judge from the article at reference 1, just the tip of the iceberg. Lots of big banks were into this sort of thing. And I seem to remember HSBC getting into trouble for providing similar services to the drug barons of Mexico.

I shall make inquiries about how much people taking in cash are supposed to do to satisfy themselves that the money is clean. What about a charity? If I walked into Battersea Dogs Home with, say, £50,000 in cash and a cuddly story, would they just take the cash?

PS: I remember that I once walked into the Parkinson's Society HQ in Vauxhall Bridge Road wanting to give them £100 - in connection with my Home Office laptop. There, it wasn't that they didn't want my money, rather that they weren't geared up for it. They were a headquarters operation and didn't concern themselves with the nuts and bolts of the business. Nevertheless, after scratching their heads for a bit, they did take my money and I did emerge with a receipt, as I recall torn out of a small book, rather like a cheque book. 

References

Reference 1: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ubs-trial-fraud-idUSKCN1Q91DR.