A Guardian reader, treasurer of their parish church, has spent months trying to recover nearly £5,500 from Lloyds Bank after it closed the church's account and failed to transfer the balance to a new account with another bank. The delay left the small congregation unable to access its own funds, forcing it to borrow money from parishioners to cover essential repairs and an electricity bill, and highlights how administrative failures at major banks can seriously disrupt small organisations reliant on limited funds.

The trouble began last November when Lloyds said the church account would be closed and a new business account would need to be opened online, but a system fault prevented both the treasurer and branch staff from doing so. A new account was opened with a different bank in early March, yet Lloyds repeatedly failed to transfer the balance, at one point blaming lost identity verification documents. Only after the treasurer raised the prospect of public exposure did Lloyds act quickly, apologising for poor communication and offering £400 in goodwill plus £96 in lost interest, though it initially omitted to address the still-missing funds. The money was eventually transferred more than four months after the account closure, with Lloyds later admitting it "should have handled things better".