How to remove a Cifas marker

Updated 28 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Who can remove a marker

Cifas runs the National Fraud Database, but it does not decide who goes on it. Its members do: banks, lenders, phone companies and others. So the member that filed your marker is the one that can remove it, and the whole process is built around making it look again.

Three bodies can get it reviewed:

• the bank or company that filed it, through its complaints process,
• Cifas, through an independent review of whether the member followed the rules,
• the Financial Ombudsman Service, which can tell the bank to remove the marker and pay compensation if it finds the bank got it wrong.

Step 1: find out what they hold

You cannot challenge what you cannot see. Send two requests on the same day:

• Your Cifas report. Apply free at cifas.org.uk/dsar. Cifas has one calendar month from a complete application. The report shows who filed the marker, when, and under which category. See how to get your Cifas report.
• Your data from the bank. A subject access request to the bank's data protection officer. It normally has one month to answer, and can extend by up to two more months if it tells you.

Step 2: gather your evidence

While you wait, put a timeline together: each event with a date, and each document with what it shows. Bank statements, messages, listings, proof of postage, and every letter from the bank, including the closure notice.

The standard matters here. The Financial Ombudsman has said in its decisions that a bank needs more than suspicion. The Cifas standard quoted in those decisions is reasonable grounds to believe a fraud or financial crime was committed or attempted, with evidence that is clear, relevant and rigorous. Your evidence is how you test that.

Step 3: complain to the bank

Send a formal complaint through the bank's complaints route. Set out what happened in your own words, attach your evidence, and ask the bank to review the marker and send a final response.

For most complaints the bank has up to 8 weeks. For payment services, such as a current account, it is usually 15 working days, and up to 35 in exceptional cases. No answer in time? Chase it, and after 8 weeks you can go to the Ombudsman without one.

Step 4: ask Cifas to review it

If the bank says no, use the complaints form on the Cifas website and attach the final response. Cifas checks with the bank that it followed the right procedures. It aims to answer within a month and never charges for a review. It cannot award compensation.

Step 5: take it to the Financial Ombudsman

You do not have to wait for Cifas. Apply to the Financial Ombudsman Service the same day. It is free and independent. An investigator looks at both sides and gives a view, and either side can ask for a final decision by an ombudsman.

The deadline: you must bring your complaint within 6 months of the date on the bank's final response. Miss it and the Ombudsman can refuse to look at it.

How long it takes

Reports and data: up to a month. The bank's final response: up to 8 weeks. The Ombudsman: often several months. Start now, because every week you wait pushes everything back.

Questions

Related guides

• How to check if you have a Cifas marker
• Taking a Cifas marker to the Financial Ombudsman
• Bank closed your account with a Cifas marker?