These negative reviews are very justified. My family had a mortgage with Halifax, now owned by the Bank of Scotland for years, I banked with them too. Sadly we were victim to an AP fraud and scam, which Bank of Scotland has consistently refused to compensate for, they have a very poor record of refunding AP scams, unlike other banks. The individual staff in the branch and on the phone are all friendly and professional, this is about governance and leadership. They were like many other banks until 2017 kept afloat with government money. The bank reported billions in profit last year and pays the CEO and leadership a large salary and remuneration, a bank has obligations and a duty of care to customers and has an important job role outside of simply making money for itself.