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Review of the Nationwide, FlexAccount:

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RACIAL PROFILING AT THE NATIONWIDE BARKING BRANCH!

As a middle-aged Black professional who had worked in senior corporate administration in some of the biggest companies in the UK, I have experienced my fair share of racial prejudice; ranging from the covert innuendos and subtle and non-subtle bigoted comments, to blatant racial discrimination both professionally and privately. Even then, I was still profoundly shocked and surprised when whilst trying to deposit just £600 into my Nationwide Flex Current Account (which I had been operating for over 15 years), at the Nationwide branch in Barking; the middle-aged While lady at the counter had blurted out (quite loudly to the hearing of everybody on the queue); "So where did you get this money from, because I’ve seen you come in a few times before"! Understandably, I was apoplectic with anger and disdain, so I asked her to explain to me under which UK banking or Nationwide’s regulations she had the authority to ask me such a question considering that the small amount involved (am sure), falls well below the threshold of the purview of the UK Anti-money Laundering Regulations; and that the only possible reason for asking search a prejudicial question the way she did; was purely due to racial profiling. I therefore immediately lodged a complaint of racial profiling and discrimination to the Nationwide central customer service unit, but I was again astounded when the Nationwide assigned Complaints Handler contacted me two weeks after; and she stated that it was permitted for the branch lady to have asked where I had got the £600 from, but that she did not know under which specific UK or Nationwide’s banking deposit regulations. More bizarrely, this complaint handler then went on to say that she felt personally “insulted” that I had lodged a complaint of racial profiling in the first instance, but when I then asked her to paint for me a scenario in which a White middle-aged man would have been subjected to such questioning over a £600 counter deposit; but she could not respond. Furthermore, when I pointed out to her that she was engaging in the rather unsavoury but commonly used tactics of “victim blaming”; she immediately stated that she was going to close down my Nationwide Flex account because of my “unreasonable behaviour”!! Needless to say that I have started shutting down my account as I would never have wished to go back to that branch again or continue to bank with Nationwide as that was not the first time I had experienced such deplorable discriminatory customer service that organisation!!! Reviewed on: 12th October 2025

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