Correspondence is the part of a banking relationship that gets reused most. FCA BCOBS 2 requires a communication to a banking customer to be fair, clear and not misleading, and the Consumer Duty in FCA PRIN 2A adds an outcome test on consumer understanding. A thread is also disclosable: UK GDPR Art. 15 gives the customer a right to a copy of their own personal data, and anything in it about a third party has to be handled separately. Marketing sitting in the same mailbox falls under PECR 2003 reg. 22. Over all of it sits the banker's duty of confidence in Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England [1924] 1 KB 461. anonym.plus marks each item on your machine, so the thread still reads clearly while the personal details are shielded.
When this applies
A trainer wants a real complaint thread for a coaching session. The wording and the tone are the lesson. The customer's name, email address, telephone number and account are not, so they come out before the file is shared.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the thread in anonym.plus on your device.
- Local OCR reads any scanned posted letters.
- It flags names, accounts, emails, and phones.
- Confirm the flags and keep the case reference.
- Swap or black out the confirmed items.
- Save the clean exchange locally.
What you need to provide
- The letters or emails (PDF, DOCX, EML, scan).
- An operator (Replace keeps the prose readable).
- Optional allow-list for the case or ticket number.
PII & financial identifiers detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Names | PERSON | customer R. Quinn → [CUSTOMER] |
| Contact | EMAIL_ADDRESS | quinn@example.co.uk → [EMAIL] |
| Contact | PHONE_NUMBER | +44 117 555 9081 → [PHONE] |
| Financial | UK_BANK_NUMBER | 44120091 → [ACCOUNT] |
| Location | LOCATION | home address, Bristol → [ADDRESS] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | DOB 1986 → [DOB] |
Compliance achieved
- Produces the redacted copy an UK GDPR Art. 15 response often needs where a thread names a third party.
- Leaves the wording intact, so the fair, clear and not misleading test in FCA BCOBS 2 can still be judged.
- Fits the consumer-understanding outcome of the Consumer Duty in FCA PRIN 2A.
- Respects the duty of confidence in Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England [1924] 1 KB 461.
- Keeps a complaint reference, so the record rule in FCA DISP 1.9 still ties back.
Anonymise customer correspondence offline — see plans & start free →
Limitations & cautions
Free text holds indirect clues — a complaint detail, a branch visit, a rare event. The tool flags named items, not narrative. Read the thread yourself before release, especially where an Art. 15 response must protect a third party as well as the requester.
Frequently asked questions
Does the tool scan email and posted letters together?
Yes. It reads EML, PDF and DOCX, and uses local OCR for scanned letters, so one pass covers a whole exchange rather than the typed half of it.
How does this help with a subject access request?
UK GDPR Art. 15 gives a right to a copy of the requester's own personal data. Where a thread also names another customer or a member of staff, you generally remove or withhold that part rather than hand the whole thread over. Redacting the third-party fields locally is the practical way to release the rest.
Will my ticket number survive the pass?
Yes. Allow-list the case or ticket reference so it stays. That keeps the copy tied to the complaint record FCA DISP 1.9 requires the firm to hold.