No evidence banks will have to report cash withdrawals over £420 to anti-fraud unit

We’ve spotted several social media posts claiming that cash withdrawals over £420 will be automatically flagged to the UK’s anti-fraud unit from 1 September 2025, but there’s no evidence this is true.

Videos circulating online claim this new rule is “backed by the Home Office”, was “discussed in Parliament” and aims to “tighten control over cash flows in the fight against money laundering, undeclared work and benefit fraud”.

The video says banks “will be obliged to send detailed reports including your name, the date, the amount and how often you’re making large withdrawals”.

But the trade association for banking and financial services, UK Finance, told us this wasn’t something that it is aware of and we couldn’t find any evidence of any such policy being discussed in parliament.

It is unclear what the post is referring to when it mentions the UK’s “anti-fraud unit”. We’ve contacted the Home Office, and will update this article if we receive a response.

Earlier this year we debunked a similar claim, that people are required to notify HMRC about any cash withdrawals over £3,000. HMRC told Full Fact in May that “there are no rules requiring taxpayers to report cash withdrawals to HMRC”, but added that “individual banks may have their own rules around cash withdrawals”.

The Financial Conduct Authority also previously told us that most banks have daily limits on cash withdrawals (such as at cash machines) for operational reasons and that these are set by individual banks and based on several factors. Some banks have daily cash withdrawal limits under £420 for certain accounts for example.

Banks must also comply with regulations to prevent financial crime, such as identifying and verifying customers, as well as protecting them from fraud and scams. But this does not include automatic reporting of any cash withdrawal over £420.

The claim may have been intended as a joke, referring to the association between 420 and marijuana, but several social media users appear to believe the claim is real.

The oldest version of the video making these claims we could find was posted in early August and has reached almost 1 million views. It was shared by a TikTok account that has shared several false claims we have fact checked in recent weeks. These include videos claiming that the government is introducing a new system called “enhanced customs monitoring” on 4 August to “track UK residents who leave the country more than three times within a 12 month period” and that purchases over £1,000 will be automatically reported to HMRC from 2026. Neither of these claims are true.

The original TikTok video includes a caveat in the caption that the video “is not intended to assert facts, but to encourage reflection and debate” and says “we encourage everyone to check the information for themselves and form their own opinions”. But the video has been shared on other social media platforms as if it is true, without the same note.

Before sharing content like this that you see on social media, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. Our toolkit gives you advice on how to navigate bad information online.