We know that starting and running a business, not-for-profit organisation or charity can have its challenges. We want to help you every step of the way.
If you opened your account with us a long time ago (before 2014), it might be set up in a way which makes it harder to access and manage your account, as you may need to have more than 1 signature to operate your account, and to authorise a transaction.
By changing the way your account is set up, you can make your account work better for you and your business, using lots of features like:
- Online and Mobile Banking
- Telephone Banking
- a range of cards, including debit cards and cash cards
- cash machines and some Post Offices to pay money in, take it out or check your balance
- make payments online, including bulk payments
- view and set up alerts.
Take a look at the information below to find out more on how to make changes depending on your account type.
If your account is setup in a way which requires more than 1 signature, from an authorised person, you’ll have limited ways of managing your accounts. You can see your accounts in Online Banking, but you won’t be able to make payments online or request a debit card. You can make payments by cheque as long as all required signatures are included.
This may be impacting the day to day running of your business. We can make this easier for you by changing the way you operate your account. You can change your signatory rules so that any 1 signature, from an authorised person, can operate the account and authorise transactions. This increases your access, allows full transactions via Online Banking, and you can also request a debit card giving your business spending flexibility.
You can change your signatory rules from an authorised person by visiting our change of details page.
You’ll need to complete a form and send it back to us. You’ll also need to send us some proof of ID (PDF - 64 KB) with your request.
You can find out how to add and remove authorised persons by visiting our change of details page.
You’ll need to complete a form and send it back to us. You’ll also need to send us some proof of ID (PDF - 64 KB) with your request.
We understand that many charities, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations need a bank account. This helps you protect the charity or organisation's money and lets it operate in a secure way. It’s also important for you to have appropriate internal financial controls, and a bank mandate to set out who in the organisation is authorised to operate the bank account. UK Finance can provide further information on this, which you may want to read alongside government guidance.
Dependent upon the structure of your organisation, the bank mandate may be set up with more than 1 person to authorise financial transactions. All trustees, treasurers and chairs remain responsible for their organisation or charity’s financial management and for implementing and monitoring their charity’s internal financial controls. By having additional controls, you can protect your organisation.
You should:
- keep a clear record of who is named on your organisation or charity’s bank mandate
- regularly review whether the bank mandate is appropriate for your organisation or charity
- tell your bank of trustee changes
For day-to-day banking needs and ease of access, you can manage the account in a way which allows 1 authorised person to operate and authorise transactions.
If you opened your account with us before November 2014, you may have more than 1 signature to operate and authorise any transactions. We no longer offer more than 1 signature for new customers, as it restricts access and can make it harder to manage and operate your account. You can change your signatory rules for authorised persons so that any one signature can operate and authorise transactions. This lets you use Online banking for payments, set up bulk payments, request a debit card on the account, account statements and summaries and more.