Barclays has shut down a choir bank account with little warning after 40 years. Dozens have told news website This is Money of their community accounts being closed or restricted by Barclays and many are small non-profit groups with low turnover and who don't borrow cash.

It often follows onerous 'know your customer' checks by the business banking team. Ogmore Valley Male Voice Choir found its Barclays account was closed with immediate effect and without any explanation. The choir's chairman received a phone call from Barclays informing him that each of its three accounts had been closed.

Barclays was unable to give him any explanation as to why it had been closed. The choir's chairman, Peter Morgan said: "We have no idea why Barclays bank has closed our accounts after having been regular customers for so long. They have left us in limbo and it has put ourselves and I'm sure many others in a difficult position.

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"We don't borrow and we have always been in credit – so why has it suddenly been closed? We give quite a bit to charity, as well as performing charitable concerts to benefit local organisations." Mr Morgan continued: "We are worried that our energy is going to be cut off because we don't have access to our account to pay the bills.

"Our treasurer has spoken to Barclays, and they say that they are going to open new accounts for us, but it will be another seven days before that happens. We have probably close to £30,000 in the accounts which we use to keep this building of ours going, and they say they can't just transfer it over. It has to be a completely new account.

"We think because we are a charity and we don't pay fees, this could be part of the reason that they have suddenly closed us down. They haven't said whether there will be fees on the new account." A Barclays spokesman says: "As part of our ongoing responsibility to help prevent financial crime, and to meet our regulatory obligations, we are required to keep up to date information regarding our customers' business accounts and this includes community groups.

"We engage with our customers through a series of communications including by post, banners on our digitally active customers' online and mobile banking as well as reminder SMS text messages and emails asking them to provide us with important information relating to their business account.

"These communications do include warnings of account closure. In cases where we do not receive a response with up-to-date account information, we will proceed with the application of card blocks and account restrictions, followed by warnings of possible final closure arrangements if issues remain unresolved."