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Do bank customers have any legal right to see where payments have come from?

I spotted a unexpected deposit into my bank account and although it was small (less than £100). I contacted my bank for details. After some time my bank told me, 'it's ok, its legitimate'. When I pressed for more information I was told it would violate the privacy of the person making the deposit!

I suspect I was just being fobbed-off by someone too bored to check, hence my question. Do I (as an account holder) have any legal right to see where my money has come from?

Update in response to comments...

All the items on my statements do include a reference, but these appear to be free-text generated by the sender. In some cases this is useful, in this case it appeared to be garbage (just random key-strokes)

Please note - my question is not "how do I find out where an individual payment has come from" it's a much more high level "do I have the right to demand my bank tells me where it's from".

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    Isn't there an information line on the statement? My statements from a big UK bank show the type of payment e.g. BAC means Bankers Automated Clearing Services, and then an info line such as 1027 22Jul23 , M&S, Bristol GB , Refund, and then the amount, don't you get any of these in your statements?
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 10 at 10:36
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    All your bank knows is the sending account sort code and number, and not the sender's name. If the sender chose not to add an info line, then your bank actually does not know 'who' sent the money.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 10 at 10:41
  • So you're basically asking if you have the right to know the owner of some other bank account, just because they transferred money into your account. I imagine this is something law enforcement could find out if you need to take legal action against them.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 10 at 16:25
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    If it makes you uncomfortable to have this unknown money in your account, then you could probably ask the bank to reverse the transaction. If it happens multiple times then I'd imagine you could even have the bank block these transactions in future. But doing either of these still wouldn't require the bank to tell you where the money is coming from ...
    – brhans
    Commented Sep 11 at 1:46
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    @Roland They wouldn't, and I never said they would... My comment isn't intended to get the OP that information. It's intended to remove the need the OP may feel to have that information.
    – brhans
    Commented Sep 11 at 11:47

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Sounds like it's not your money

Now, just because a transfer is "legitimate" doesn't mean that it was intended. If you get paid money by mistake, it isn't legally yours even though it's sitting in your bank account. In much the same way that an envelope full of cash incorrectly placed in your letterbox isn't yours.

People have been jailed for spending (i.e. stealing) money that was incorrectly deposited to their account; albeit not for £100.

Does your bank have to tell you the origin?

Almost certainly not. In fact, the GDPR would make it illegal for them to tell you.

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  • I don't think this is within the scope of GDPR. A bank has its own set of privacy rules specific to the industry that probably apply instead, and this is a transaction directly involving the person seeking information. They may actually even have a legal need to know (e.g. for tax purposes, or to know if someone who owes you money needs to be credited with a payment). It doesn't violate privacy laws for you to see a check that you deposit into your account and this is just an electronic version of the same thing.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Sep 11 at 11:22
  • @ohwilleke your just stating reasons why they might be allowed to disclose under the GDPR - banks are not exempt from the GDPR.
    – Dale M ♦
    Commented Sep 11 at 21:11

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