Bag stuffed with cash

NATWEST has been fined £265 million after a business

suspected of money-laundering deposited £700,000 in cash in black bin bags (Mail).

When the bank’s Isa interest rate nose-dived, my wife and I decided to withdraw our £20,000 and reinvest it with Halifax. The two local branches of these financial establishments are across the road from each other.

Our 75-minute meeting at NatWest concluded with them utilising the only procedure their systems would allow: we ended up standing in the street clutching a plastic bag stuffed with cash.

With difficulty, I had extricated a written confirmation from NatWest without which Halifax would not accept our cash. They still took some convincing about our ‘fishy’ explanation.

MIKE LONG, Rugby, Warks.