Breaking down euros in UK bank..illegal?

A question about : Breaking down euros in UK bank..illegal?

MY Mother has a few euro hundred notes, and wanted to break them down into 50, 20, 10's for her kids spending money when they go on holiday. She went to a well known bank who told her they could not do it as it was illegal?

...I guess if that's what they say then this is true, can anyone confirm, it just seem ridiculous, I can understand the fight against organized crime, but 100 euro note?

Best answers:

• Im afraid you must have been dealing with a lazy jobsworth who couldnt be bothered to help so fobbed you off!! It is certainly not illegal!!
• It's not illegal but no bank is obliged to provide a free service to some random nobody off the street that is costing them (even if not much)
• I suggest that she visits a Marks and Spencer bureaux de change and asks nicely. They are not obliged to help, but are quite likely to do so.
• It is not illegal but it is against the Anti Money Laundering procedure that many exchange bureaux have in place and the only place you wil be able to change them without a problem should be airports, other than that everywhere has the right to refuse breaking down denominations as it can be seen as 'placement'.
• I hardly think that breaking a few hundred euros into smaller denominations is money laundering, that is going a bit too far to suggest that!!
  However many places may refuse to exchange smaller bills to avoid any potential 'scams' , or 'slight of hand' eg the customer could distract the cashier and then claim that the amount they got back is different to what they should have got.