CH227150 - How to do a compliance check: information powers: third party notice: bank mandates: visits to banks

The purpose of the letter at CH227140 is to give the branch adequate notice of what you need to see. The visit referred to in the letter should be arranged at the earliest convenient date. The original mandate should be shown to the bank’s representatives but retained, since it may be necessary to produce it to some other branch of the same bank at a later date.

The information branches are asked to provide can be extensive. You should be prepared, as far as possible, to copy or record the required details during the course of that or a subsequent visit. Requests for copies or information in writing should be kept to the minimum consistent with the need to deal adequately with your compliance check. It is particularly important that nothing should be done which might result in charges to the person who has not been authorised. This should be borne in mind and, if necessary, confirmed if copies of documents are requested.

If information is not immediately available because the documents are elsewhere, for example where paid cheques or paying-in slips are stored in a repository away from the branch premises, arrangement should be made for their production at a later date.

Finding paid cheques or paying-in slips can be costly to locate, see CH227270. You should therefore identify the cheques or slips that are essential from the bank statements first.