RBS exercise of contractual discretion to terminate banking relationship without notice upheld

This case summary is an excerpt from “The Lie of the Land: Banking Litigation – Key cases in England & Wales so far this year” by Anthea Bowater (anthea.bowater@freshfields.com), a senior associate, and Simon Orton (simon.orton@freshfields.com) and Piers Reynolds (piers.reynolds@freshfields.com), who are partners at Freshfields in London (+44 20 7936 4000).

Whenit suspected that a customer’s bank accounts were being used for money laundering purposes (whether innocently or otherwise), the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) froze the customer’s accounts and terminated the banking relationship without notice.