Financial

Ombudsman
Service

Investigation Outcome – Mr D Thakur v Paysafe Financial Services

Limited

PNX-4689426-D5V7 15 September 2023

The Complaint

Mr Thakur is unhappy Paysafe Financial services Limited closed his account and refused
to release his funds. He states he’s struggled without these funds as he has a family to
support. To put things right, he would like his funds refunded to him.

The Outcome

Based on the evidence I’ve reviewed, I’m unable to ask Paysafe to return Mr Thakur’s
funds or compensate him. Paysafe require proof of ID in order to release funds and as
Mr Thakur’s ID document wasn’t accepted, I can’t ask Paysafe to refund him. However, if
Mr Thakur is able to provide satisfactory documents, I would expect Paysafe to review
these and release his funds.

The Key Points

 Financial businesses are entitled to close accounts at any time, providing this is
carried out in line with the account terms and conditions.
 They’re also not obliged to provide a reason to their customers why the account was
closed, so our service is unable to make them do so.
I asked Paysafe to explain to our service why they decided to close Mr Thakur’s
account. The reason for closure can be provided to our service in confidence,
so that we can be satisfied the decision was fairly made. Although the information
Paysafe provided isn’t sufficient for me to determine the closure was fair, I’m unable
to uphold this element of the complaint or compensate Mr Thakur as he’s been
unable to identify himself.
 Having reviewed the document Mr Thakur provided, I can see why Paysafe rejected
it. Without acceptable ID I can’t ask Paysafe to release the funds as the bank need
to be able to identify Mr Thakur.
 I appreciate Mr Thakur will be disappointed with the outcome but unfortunately, I’m
unable to uphold his complaint.

This is the opinion of Investigator Andra Popescu. Unless either party wants to take things
further, there’s no need to do anything and this case will close on 29 September 2023. If
either party disagrees and wants an Ombudsman to consider the case, they must inform us
— and submit any further evidence or representations — by 29 September 2023. Requests
for more time must also be made by that date. More details on how the Financial
Ombudsman Service makes decisions can be found here. It may take a few months for a
case to reach an Ombudsman.