Information about our Business Current Account services

The Financial Conduct Authority requires us to publish the following information about our Business Current Accounts.

How to open a current account

To open any of our accounts a new customer will need to provide us with the documents and information set out here. We may request additional information or documents in individual cases.

You can open an account:

Without visiting a branch	✔
Where a visit to a branch is required, without an appointment	✔
By sending us documents and information electronically	In some cases
By post	In some cases

How and when you can contact us to ask about the following:

	24 hour help?	Telephone	Internet banking	Mobile banking
Contact details		Telephone: 0345 08 08 508
Checking the balance and transactions	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Sending money within the UK, including setting up a standing order	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Sending money outside the UK	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Paying in a cheque	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Cancelling a cheque	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Cash withdrawal in a foreign currency outside the UK	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
A lack of funds: including unarranged overdrafts, payments we allow despite lack of funds and payments we refuse due to lack of funds	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
A direct debit, or allowing someone to collect one or more payments from your account using your debit card number	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Third party access to an account, for example under a power of attorney	Not Possible	Not Possible	Not possible	Not possible
Problems using internet banking or mobile banking	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Reporting a suspected fraudulent incident or transaction	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Progress following an account suspension or card cancellation, e.g. following a fraud incident	✔	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible
Account opening: including eligibility for an arranged overdraft, what is required to open an account and an indication of what arranged overdraft may be available	Not possible	Not possible	Not possible	Not possible

Note: this is a list of common queries. It does not represent the full list of queries you can raise in relation to your account, or of queries you can raise in one of our branches.

How and when you can use your bank account to do the following:

	Telephone	Internet Banking	Mobile Banking
Checking the balance	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Accessing a transaction history	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Setting up a standing order	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Sending money within the UK	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Sending money outside the UK	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	24 hours a day, 7 days a week For Business Online Plus and Commercial Online Banking only	Not possible
Paying in a cheque	Not possible	Not possible	Not possible
Cancelling a cheque	24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Not possible	Not possible

Note: this is a list of common actions. It does not represent the full list of actions you can take in relation to your account, or actions you can take in one of our branches.

Information about operational and security incidents

We are obliged to notify the Financial Conduct Authority if we become aware of a major operational or security incident which prevents our customers from using our payment services.

	In the 3 months between 1 October 2018 and 31 December 2018	In the 9 months between 1 April 2018 and 31 December 2018
Total number of incidents reported	3	5
Incidents affecting telephone banking	2	2
Incidents affecting mobile banking	2	2
Incidents affecting internet banking	2	4

The speed of our business account opening process

How quickly do we open business current accounts?
We give customers an account number and enable them to start paying into the account:
the same day, for 51% of customers;
on average, in 2 days; and
within 13 days for 99% of customers.
(for firms that publish a list under BCOBS 7.3.1R) These figures are based on the time taken from our receiving all the information and documents we ask for here, in a case where we don’t need any further information or documents to open the account. We are reporting the standard process for business account opening with data from stores. As a stores-based organisation we open the majority of accounts this way. We also open some accounts via a central team which undertakes the work using the same process, but where an additional 1-2 days may be incurred while application documents are transferred.
How quickly do we give customers a debit card?
Once an account is open, we give customers a debit card:
the same day, for 46% of customers;
on average, in 3 days; and
within 47 days for 99% of customers.
We offer the ability to collect in-store and via post. Personal collection from store is generally preferred by our customers.
How quickly do customers get internet banking?
Once an account is open, customers have internet banking:
the same day, for 97% of customers;
on average, in 1 day; and
within 30 days for 99% of customers.
How quickly is an overdraft available?
Once an account is open, the overdraft is available:
the same day, for 0% of customers;
on average, 14 days; and
within 22 days for 99% of customers.
The speed with which we can replace a debit card:
How quickly do we replace debit cards which have been lost, stolen or stopped?
We replace debit cards:
the same day, for 100% of customers;
on average, same day; and
same day for 99% of customers.

Note: The measurement timings in the table above use a day count convention of same day, after which next day = 1 day.

Complaints Data

Financial Conduct Authority rules require us to provide them with a report of our complaints data every six months. In certain circumstances, we are also required to publish a summary of our complaints data.

The most recent summary is available here.

The Financial Ombudsman Service publishes its complaints data every six months. You can see their complaints data about us at www.ombudsman-complaints-data.org.uk/.

For more information on how we support the needs of all of our customers, click here.