John Thanassoulis, Professor in Financial Economics at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick said: “Although the number of complaints to the financial ombudsman about unfair bank closures is relatively modest at the moment, it is a problem that is likely to increase due to the growing use of Big Data, AI and social media in banking.

“A big concern here, is that banks appear to have a preference for closing accounts, rather than engaging with the authorities and processes that are in place to deal with certain issues such as suspicious or fraudulent activity, terrorism financing and other crimes.

“Banks should raise Suspicious Activity Reports internally and then with the police. Banks do not transfer the money requested in these instances but collect evidence which should then be passed on to the police. If a crime has been committed then police bring charges and the accused has right to a fair trial.

“Closing someone’s bank account has serious consequences for an individual, it could lead to a red flag on their credit report which then causes problems when applying to open an account with a different bank.

“Banks should not be the judge and jury and need to move away from thinking that they choose the client and more towards the client choosing the bank. Banks should then be obliged to provide services unless there are clear unambiguous financial reasons to deny those services. And these reasons should be the same across clients, not discriminatory between clients.”