A bank decided unilaterally to close the accounts of three companies and their shareholders because of "red flags" that caused it to fear that these accounts were involved in money laundering. The bank gave a 14-day warning to the customers.
The Court held that the bank is obligated to allow the accounts to be held. The existence of red flags does not in itself lead to the closing of an account, since these are related to the "know the customer" (KYC) phase, which is mainly the examination and recognition of the customer, including receipt of documents. It is known that the bank is under a certain tension - on the one hand, it is obligated to provide service to its customers, but it is also obligated to prevent prohibited actions of money laundering and the prevention of terrorism. Closing the customer's account will only take place as a last step when the customer does not respond and when there is reasonable basis to assume that the activity is related to money laundering or terrorism.