Business Savings Accounts FAQs

To be eligible for a Recognise business savings account your business must meet the following criteria: 

  • Be a Small to Medium Enterprise with
    • Fewer than 250 employees and
    • Either assets of less than £36.5m and / or turnover of less than £42.5m
  • Be either a
    • Sole Trader
    • Partnership
    • Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
    • Limited Company
  • Be a UK based business
    • Established and operating in the UK
    • Persons of interest (including Ultimate Beneficial Owners and Directors of Ltd Companies) being resident in the UK and at least 18 years old
  • Have an ownership structure of no more than 4 levels.
  • Not trade with sanctioned and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) listed countries.

You can make deposits into your Recognise savings account by electronic transfer from either:

  • Your nominated UK business bank account (this is the bank, building society or online account in your name that you told us you wanted to receive withdrawals into when you applied for your Recognise business savings account)
  • Another one of your Recognise business savings accounts (where eligible)


It is important that the payment instructions you provide are accurate and that you use the following information when making the transfer:

Sort code04-06-51
Account number00000011
BeneficiaryRecognise Bank
Reference – all  deposits7 Digit Account Number and your surname.
Account typeBusiness

You can request withdrawals from your Recognise business savings account, where allowed, using our Secure Online System, which you can easily log into via our website.

Your money can be moved either to your nominated UK business bank account or to one of your other Recognise business savings accounts, where eligible. You can choose which account to transfer your money to when making your withdrawal request.

  • If you have a Fixed Rate Account you cannot make any withdrawals from your account before it matures. We will write to you a few weeks before it matures to explain your options to you.
  • If you have a Notice Account, you need to provide notice defined in the Summary Box and Product Terms and Conditions before withdrawing your money.
  • If you have an Easy Access Account, you have instant access to the money in your Account provided the funds have cleared and are available for withdrawal.


For withdrawal eligibility, please always refer to your Product Terms and Conditions.

You can choose to have up to four Authorised Users to manage your banking relationship with Recognise Bank. Each Authorised User can access, operate and transact all your Recognise business savings accounts.

An Authorised User must be one of the following:

  • Limited Company – Director
  • Limited Liability Partnership – Designated Member
  • Sole Trader – Proprietor/Owner (only one Authorised User permitted)
  • Partnership – Partner


Managing your business savings account is simple, each Authorised User simply needs to log into our Secure Online System from which they can:

  • View accounts and balances
  • Access statements and interest statements
  • Make withdrawals
  • Manage business and personal details including their login and contact details

 

Your nominated UK business bank account is the UK current account in your name or in the name of your joint account holders. This is the account from which you make payments to and from your Recognise savings account.

You can only have one nominated UK bank account allocated to your Recognise savings account. You may change your nominated UK bank account by logging into your account, going to the ‘change my details’ section and following the instructions online.

Your initial deposit is the first deposit you make into your savings account.

You can use your 7 digit account number together with your surname to make your initial deposit online via our Secure Online System.

You must make this initial deposit within 14 days of opening your Recognise savings account.

Unfortunately, after this period, if we haven’t received your initial deposit, we may assume that you no longer need your Recognise savings account, and we will proceed to close the account.

Yes – 14 days.

We will close your account if you’ve not made your initial deposit within 14 calendar days of your account opening.

Our Business Savings Accounts are unavailable for businesses that are involved in any of the following activities: defence activities including arms manufacture and dealing; chemical manufacture; gambling and betting activities; financial institution for FATCA and CRS purposes, banking including trade finance or money service bureaux.

You can apply to open an account online through our website or through our Secure Online System if you already have an account with us.

To view our business savings accounts and apply now, visit our Business Savings Hub and then follow the steps below:

  1. Select the account you’d like to open and read the Summary Box and Terms and Conditions.
  2. Click ‘apply now’
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions and provide us with some personal and business details, along with existing UK business account information.
  4. Make your first deposit within 14 days
  5. That’s it! Watch your savings grow.

Occasionally, we may need some extra information from you in order to confirm your identity and the address of any POIs. You can view the list of accepted documents here.

Your account is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via our Secure Online System.

Logging into and accessing your account is simple, each Authorised User can:

  • Click on the “Log-in” button on our website
  • Enter their User ID
  • Enter their password
  • Enter their memorable data

Fixed rate accounts

You can only close your fixed rate account at the end of the fixed term, once it has matured.

Notice accounts

You’ll need to give us full notice for us to close your account. You can do this by logging into your account, by using our Secure Online System and provided you choose to withdraw all your money your account will automatically close. We will move the money to your Nominated UK bank account at the end of your notice period.

Easy access accounts

You can close your account by logging on to our Secure Online System.

We will email you a minimum of 21 Calendar Days before your account matures, advising you of the maturity date and asking you to login to your account. From there select your maturity options and complete and return the instructions form.

The maturity options page will provide you with the choices for your matured deposits and details any interest that has accrued in the account. This will include options to invest in other Recognise business savings accounts or return the funds to your nominated UK business bank account.

If we have not received your instruction, we will also email you 14 days prior to your account maturing to provide a further reminder and ask you to complete and return the instructions form online.

If we don’t receive an instruction from you 2 days prior to your account maturing, we will convert your fixed rate account into a notice account and will advise you on how to decide for your funds.

No.

Our savings accounts are completely free to use.

Yes.

Your eligible deposits with Recognise are protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme. For more information visit www.fscs.org.uk.

Password

If you’ve forgotten your password, simply click on the ‘Forgotten Password?’ link on the Log In page. You’ll need your User ID, email address and memorable data. When you’ve entered these details, the first half of your temporary password will be displayed on screen and the second half will be emailed to you within half an hour.

Memorable data or User ID

If you’ve forgotten your memorable data or User ID, please call us on 0345 872 7888* and we’ll be happy to help.

*We are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday and are closed on Bank Holidays. Please note that your calls may be monitored for training, quality and security purposes.

You can find your 7 digit account number in: 

  • Your Welcome Pack in your secure message inbox.
  • In the account summary page when you log into our Secure Online System.

When you apply for a Recognise business savings account, the person applying for the account will be set up as the first Authorised User to your account.

You can then add up to three more Authorised Users to operate your business’ relationship with Recognise Bank, meaning you can have a maximum of four Authorised User s at any one time.

Each Authorised User can access, operate and transact all your business’ Recognise business savings accounts.

For interest to be paid on your account the account minimum balance needs to be maintained.

You can find the minimum balance amount for your specific account type within the product’s Summary Box and within the Product Terms and Conditions which can be found on our website.

In all circumstances we require that you maintain the minimum specified balance in your Recognise savings account to receive interest.

If you make a withdrawal which would take your Account Balance below its specified minimum, we may, depending on your circumstances, automatically close it during the withdrawal process and transfer the whole account balance to your nominated UK business bank account.

Please call us immediately on 0345 872 7888*.

We will check your account for you and set up a new account or security details straight away. You should also report it to Action Fraud by using the online fraud reporting tool at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

We will never write, email or call to ask you to provide your password or memorable data. Although we will ask you to provide selected personal information to confirm your identity before we give you information about your Recognise savings account by telephone.

*We are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday and are closed on Bank Holidays. Please note that your calls may be monitored for training, quality and security purposes.

To help us make and receive payments to and from your Recognise savings account with your bank building society or online account, we need to use a clearing bank.

In the UK, a clearing bank is one that can exchange payments between two separate banks or customers. We use ClearBank as our clearing bank to help us make and receive payments to and from your Recognise savings account. This means that the ClearBank name may show up when making a payment into your Recognise savings account.

Confirmation of Payee is a new way of giving customers (both personal and business) greater assurance when sending payments to the intended recipient, helping to avoid accidental or misdirected payments to the wrong account holder, as well as providing another layer of protection in the fight against fraud and scams. Further information can be found on the UK Finance website.

You can log into your account using our Secure Online System to view and print a full Account Statement or an Interest Statement at any time.

You can access both from the ‘Manage Account’ dropdown for each account.

A statement for each tax year will be available in your online account shortly after the start of the following tax year.

Please contact the Customer Service Team on 0345 872 7888 if you require further help.

General Terms and Conditions can be found here.

Product Terms and Conditions can be found on that specific personal savings product page on our website. You can navigate to that page via the Business Savings Hub Page.

For general enquiries about your business savings account, please visit our Contact Us page.

Yes. If you’ve opened a Recognise deposit savings account through the Insignis Cash platform, your eligible deposits are FSCS protected up to £85,000.

Keep in mind that this protection is a total limit for funds held with Recognise Bank. You need to consider any other deposit savings you’ve deposited directly with us.

The government sponsored MoneyHelper website is a great place to start. Visit the link to access a range of information and advice, from savings and investing guides, to budget planners and savings calculators.