Any recommendations for a club bank account?

[JT]

As a new group, we want to open a bank account to deposit our massive group allowance.

Are there are any recommendations?

I favour the Co-Op but they appear to require a lot of paperwork to open their community/club account, paperwork which I'm not sure we'll even be able to produce.

[Karen Sutton]

http://www.goodwithmoney.co.uk/community-banking/

[gaz]

Make sure of the following:-

- at least three people are able to sign on the account.

- at least two signatures are required to withdraw funds, regardless of however much you trust one person.

- your treaurer is comfortable with whatever level of book-keeping you'll require of him.

- your treasurer is happy with the choice.

I favour the Co-Op but they appear to require a lot of paperwork to open their community/club account, paperwork which I'm not sure we'll even be able to produce.

Is the paperwork a matter of identification for the individuals or is it regarding rules of the club?

[JT]

The paperwork is in relation to the club/group rather than individuals.

[thirdcrank]

All banks are bound by the money laundering regs (identification of customers etc) although they are now more realistic than they were a few years ago.

None of the banks seems to pay more than token interest.

That leaves you with personal convenience. I'd leave it to whoever is going to do the legwork - no point in having them mess with a bank they are not happy with. (Better the call centre you know .... )

[gaz]

To meet their own duties with regard to money laundering they'll also want a brief idea of how much money will pass through the account, who it's coming from and who it's going to.

At a guess the bank are also asking for a copy of the clubs rules or constitution.

Draft some up. They don't need to be complex, nobody is going to examine them at all never mind in any detail. Have a read of CTC's own mem & arts to get some ideas but yours can be very much simpler. Something about what the club is called (CTC Peterborough / Peterborough CTC, I'm not sure which way round it's supposed to go these days), it's governing body (committee), no borrowing allowed, no member to benefit directly from funds, etc. One A4 page should easily do it.

The banks websites and brochures don't differentiate between a local cycling club with 10 members or a national cycling organisation of 60,000 members. The bank wants the rules because, theoretically, any "club" can borrow money. If you ask to borrow some money the bank needs the rules to establish who the "club" members and officers are, which officers (if any) are authorised to request the borrowing and who is responsible for repayment, especially in the event of default.

If you ask to borrow some money they'll take a proper look at them. If they've not been drawn up by a solicitor it will be no more than a glance before the answer of "no".

[Karen Sutton]

To meet their own duties with regard to money laundering they'll also want a brief idea of how much money will pass through the account, who it's coming from and who it's going to.

At a guess the bank are also asking for a copy of the clubs rules or constitution.

Draft some up. They don't need to be complex, nobody is going to examine them at all never mind in any detail. Have a read of CTC's own mem & arts to get some ideas but yours can be very much simpler. Something about what the club is called (CTC Peterborough / Peterborough CTC, I'm not sure which way round it's supposed to go these days), it's governing body (committee), no borrowing allowed, no member to benefit directly from funds, etc. One A4 page should easily do it.

The banks websites and brochures don't differentiate between a local cycling club with 10 members or a national cycling organisation of 60,000 members. The bank wants the rules because, theoretically, any "club" can borrow money. If you ask to borrow some money the bank needs the rules to establish who the "club" members and officers are, which officers (if any) are authorised to request the borrowing and who is responsible for repayment, especially in the event of default.

If you ask to borrow some money they'll take a proper look at them. If they've not been drawn up by a solicitor it will be no more than a glance before the answer of "no".

Our Group doesn't have any rules or constitution. The only rules we observe are those devised by CTC for CTC Member Groups.

If it is for a CTC Group you must use "CTC" somewhere in the title of the account.

[Jimmy The Hand]

Our Group doesn't have any rules or constitution. The only rules we observe are those devised by CTC for CTC Member Groups.

Then surely those are your group rules?

[Karen Sutton]

Yes, I suppose they will be. We have never been asked for them by a bank though.

[JT]

Thanks all for your responses.

Experiences may differ here if you opened an account in person. I've been looking at downloadable/online application forms and they don't give you much leeway.

I think for new groups this is one of those areas where National Office could have partnered with one of the banks to make this process easier, or at least provide a pack with the basic information you're likely to need. I'll mention this to Adrian Lawson, who incidentally couldnt have been more helpful during the process of setting up CTC Peterborough.

[gaz]

I'm pleased to hear that HO have been very helpful with setting up CTC Peterborough. I'd formed the wrong impression about that but I'm more than happy to be corrected by the man who knows.