Denise asked for reimbursement of the $5,000 and for costs she said she incurred in arranging accountant-prepared financial information requested by the bank before it refused to proceed with her application. The bank initially denied disclosing her information to someone outside of the bank but eventually admitted it had wrongly done so. It offered Denise $6,500. She did not accept this offer and asked us to investigate.

Our investigation

Since the bank accepted it had breached Denise's privacy, our role was to consider the impact of the breach. Denise told us the bank disclosed the information to the cousin of a person who was interested in buying the tavern, and that the disclosure meant she was forced to bid against another person. However, we could not find any information to establish a connection between the disclosure and her decision to increase her offer by $5,000. As such, we considered the bank had not caused her any direct financial loss.

The bank told Denise she would have to supply accountant-prepared forecasts of the tavern’s projected turnover before it could proceed with her loan application. The next day, Denise challenged this requirement. A day later, the bank told her it would not consider her application. The bank’s records showed Denise did not supply the forecasts before the bank told her it would not consider her application. The bank did not have to continue with the application, and its records also did not indicate it would approve the application if she supplied the forecasts. As such, we found any accounting costs were not a direct financial loss caused by the bank.

We did, however, consider the bank’s disclosure had caused her stress and inconvenience. The bank had already offered her $6,500 in compensation, and we told Denise this was more than we would in all likelihood have recommended.

Outcome

Denise accepted the bank’s offer.