Oxford: Barclays apologises after error closes church's account

John Bunyan Baptist Church was left having to ask its national union to help pay bills

A bank has apologised after a "human error" led to a church's account being closed for more than a month.

Amy-Joy Allen, treasurer of John Bunyan Baptist Church in Cowley, Oxford, spotted the balance was zero at the start of November.

She said the situation had left her in "floods of tears", and the church had to rely on the Baptist Union of Great Britain to pay some of its urgent bills before the problem was resolved.

Barclays has now reopened the account.

Mrs-Joy Allen said the church had provided identity documents and evidence of its charity status at the beginning of the year.

It is believed incorrect processing of this information led to the account's sudden closure.

The subsequent delay in reopening the account was "really stressful", Mrs Joy Allen said.

She added that the church now planned to change the bank it uses.

A Barclays spokesperson said: "As part of our ongoing responsibility to help prevent financial crime and to meet our regulatory responsibilities, we are required to ensure we hold up-to-date information regarding our customers' business accounts.

"We acknowledge that on this occasion we were in receipt of the required mandate documents and due to human error the account was incorrectly closed.

"For this error and for the time taken in reopening the account, which is now fully operational, we offer our profound apologies."

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