Barclay's faces probe over 'privacy rules breach'
An official investigation has been launched into alleged customer privacy breaches by Barclays Bank, the UK's Information Commissioner’s Office said today.
It follows a BBC Whistleblower investigation at two of the bank’s customer call centres over nine months.
An undercover journalist reportedly discovered examples of mis-selling, employees lying to customers and security failings.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will look at whether Barclays breached the Data Protection Act and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
It said issues of concern in the BBC programme included a Barclays staff trainer telling employees to ignore the wishes of customers who did not want to be contacted.
Call centre marketing staff were told to tell customers they were “account consultants” rather than sales advisers.
The film also showed call centre staff accessing customers’ accounts without a valid reason.
ICO head of regulatory action division Mick Gorrill said: “The ICO takes breaches of people’s privacy extremely seriously.
“For instance, making sales calls to people who have expressly asked not to be contacted is totally unacceptable.”
The ICO has asked the high street bank to supply it with the results of an internal inquiry into the issue.
The privacy watchdog also requested copies of Barclays’ telephone sales policies and procedures.
Thirdly, the ICO wants the bank to explain why call centre staff apparently “deliberately flouted” those rules.
The ICO can choose to prosecute Data Protection Act breaches, which carry maximum Magistrates’ Court fines of £5,000 (€7,300).
