Bank’s email practices broke no rules and caused no loss or inconvenience

Contact us
0800 805 950

Bank’s email practices broke no rules and caused no loss or inconvenience

Categories:

Service problems, Other,

Summary:

In January 2026, Tommy complained to the bank about what he considered were its potentially risky practices of using more than one email sender domain and including links in its emails. He said these practices increased the risk of phishing and scams. The bank did not accept his complaint, so he came to us.

Published:

May 2026

Our investigation

The Code of Banking Practice does not set out rules about bank email sender domains or the use of links in emails, although it does say banks will never send customers a link in a text message. Wider industry guidance about these practices says that banks will never send an email or text asking customers to log in to internet banking. The bank’s email practices were consistent with this guidance and the Code. As our role is not to make rules or set standards for banks, we could not take Tommy’s complaint any further.

There was also a second reason: Our rules allow us to not consider a complaint if the customer has not suffered, and is unlikely to suffer, direct loss or significant inconvenience. In this case, Tommy suffered no direct loss or inconvenience as a result of the bank’s email practices.