[entwisi]

Banks whether you like it or not are highly regulated by the government. One of these is around money laundering to the point that it is MANDATORY that even I who work in a computer centre and has never ever been let near a customer have to undergo money laundering, fraud, sanctions and about 10 other training courses every year to show that the bank is complying with the regulations. Its been in place for many years that requests of over 10K should be challenged, of late that seems to be being lowered by some Banks ( particularly ones that have had issues and fines around sanctions and other fun financial issues) i guess in a case of being over zealous in order to prove to HMG that they are trying to do their best.