Funding · Banking

Community group bank accounts

Q: Can we open a community group account in someone’s personal name?

Don't. Personal accounts holding community funds create a tax problem for the individual (the funds may be treated as theirs), an audit-trail problem for the group (no visibility, no dual authority), and a continuity problem (what happens when they move house or die). Open a proper account in the group's name even if you have to wait a few weeks.

Q: Why does it take 6–16 weeks?

Anti-money-laundering rules require banks to KYC every named signatory and verify the governing document. For charity-specialist banks, this is genuinely slow because the process is more rigorous than for a standard SME. Plan for it; apply early.

Q: Are charity accounts free?

Most specialist charity accounts charge £5/month or similar; some mainstream bank Treasurers' / Charity accounts (Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Virgin Money) are free below stated turnover thresholds. Compare free under-£1m offers if you're small; the £5 specialist fee is worth paying if you value the trustee expertise.

Q: Does our community group need its own bank account, or can we use the parish council’s?

Almost always its own. Mixing community-group funds with parish-council funds blurs governance, complicates audit, and exposes the council's clerk and councillors to fiduciary risk over funds they haven't formally accepted responsibility for. Many parish councils now refuse this arrangement explicitly. Run a separate account.

Q: We’re a small CIC. Should we use Tide / Starling or a charity-specialist bank?

For speed: Starling or Tide will have you operational in days. For sector fit and the long term: Co-op or Unity Trust accept CICs and bring stronger understanding of the CIC asset lock and CIC34 reporting. A common pattern is to start with a fintech account for the first 1–2 years and migrate to a charity-specialist bank as the operation grows.

Q: How do we handle FSCS protection above £85,000?

Split balances across different banking licences. Lloyds and HBOS share a licence. NatWest, RBS and Ulster share one. Most other banks have their own. For a charity holding £150,000 in reserves, the standard pattern is a transactional account at Co-op or Unity plus a savings account at a separate bank (CCLA's COIF / Public Sector Deposit Fund is widely used for surplus charity cash).

The honest comparison: which UK banks actually accept small community groups, charities and CICs in 2026 — and what to do about the bank-derisking problem that closed 42% of trustees a poor service in the last year.

Last updated 17 May 2026·9 min read

We may earn a commission from some links on this page — see our affiliate disclosure. It does not change our editorial recommendations.

The short answer

For registered charities and CIOs:Co-op Bank Charity & Community, CAF Bank, or Unity Trust Bank. All three are charity-specialist; all three support dual-signatory authorisation natively; all three are familiar with trustee structures.

For small unincorporated community groups: Co-op or Unity Trust currently accept unregistered groups with a constitution. The Co-op is closing to new unregulated client accounts from 31 March 2026 — read the warning below.

For CICs: Co-op accepts CICs; Unity Trust accepts CICs; Tide and Starling both accept CICs (as limited companies) on a much faster onboarding timeline.

For cash-handling groups (lottery clubs, churches, fete cash): Metro Bank Community Current — 200 free transactions a month, free coin counting, branches with extended hours.

Get a quote from Unity Trust Get a quote from CAF Bank

The de-risking problem is real

The Charity Commission's 2024 trustee survey found 42% of trustees reported poor bank service in the prior 12 months. 32% had trouble updating signatories or contacts. 18% struggled to open accounts at all. Charities with income between £10,000 and £100,000 are the most likely to face issues — roughly 4 in 10.

The FCA's September 2023 and September 2024 reports on payment accounts confirmed the pattern: dormant or inactive status and financial-crime concerns are the leading documented reasons for closures, and the UK has no right to a bank account for businesses, charities or civil-society organisations (unlike the personal Basic Bank Account regime).

Implication: open the account early, well before you need it. Onboarding takes 6–16 weeks for charities. If you wait until the lottery cheque arrives, you'll miss the grant deadline.

What you actually need from a community bank account

Acceptance of your legal structure.Most mainstream banks now turn away unincorporated groups without a constitution; some won't accept CICs; specialist banks accept all the small-organisation forms.
Dual-signatory authorisation (“two-to-sign”). The Charity Commission's internal-financial-controls guidance effectively expects this. Specialist banks support it natively; some app-based business accounts don't.
Low or zero monthly fee for the small-scale operation. £5/month is the standard specialist price.
Free everyday transactions in volume — most specialist accounts cap free transactions; check the limits.
FSCS protection up to £85,000 per banking licence (note: Lloyds and HBOS share a licence; NatWest, RBS and Ulster share one). For groups holding reserves above £85k, split between licences.
Trustee KYC familiarity. Mainstream banks increasingly want to identity-check every named trustee as a Key Account Person. Specialist banks are practised at this; high-street SME banks often are not.
Online banking with shared visibility. Trustees and treasurer should both be able to see balances. Most specialists offer this; some Co-op and CAF interfaces still feel pre-2015.

The five providers most small groups should look at

Bank	Accepts	Monthly fee	Best for
Co-operative Bank Charity & Community	Registered charities, CICs, co-ops, credit unions, community benefit societies	£5/month	Long-established specialist; multi-signatory; ethical policy. Closing to new unregulated client accounts 31 March 2026.
CAF Bank	Registered charities (and some unregistered following review)	£5/month	Purpose-built for charities; deepest trustee-structure understanding; slower onboarding (8–16 weeks)
Unity Trust Bank	Registered + unregistered charities, CIOs, SCIOs, CICs, trusts, foundations, mutuals, clubs, parish/town/community councils	Tier 1 low (~£6/qtr equiv); negotiated above	Ethical commercial bank; favoured by parish councils & social enterprises; named relationship manager
Metro Bank Community Current	Charities, clubs, societies, CICs (commonly cited <£2m turnover)	Free (£0.30/transaction over 200/month)	Cash-heavy groups — 200 free transactions/month, £10k free cash deposit, free coin counting; branches with extended hours
Virgin Money / Clydesdale Charity & Clubs	Registered charities, clubs and societies	Free if <£1m turnover	Strong digital experience; Xero / QuickBooks integration; digital cheque deposit

All five are sensible starting points for the vast majority of UK community-group banking. The choice between them usually comes down to: who accepts your legal structure, who handles your cash volume cheaply, and which has the digital UX your treasurer can live with.

The standalone profiles

Co-operative Bank Charity & Community Account. The long-established specialist. £5/month. Ethical policy. Multi-signatory native (dual or triple authority). Customer Donation Fund of up to £1,000 for account holders (£1.2m+ given since inception). Counter access at Post Office, HSBC and RBS. Eligibility caps: turnover under £2m; under £100k cash; under 5,000 cheques. Critical: the bank is closing to new unregulated client accounts from 31 March 2026 — unregistered community groups should plan around this.

CAF Bank. Owned by the Charities Aid Foundation. £5/month. The strongest specialist understanding of trustee structures in the UK market — they live and breathe charity bank-account work. Slower onboarding than most (8–16 weeks typical). Pays small credit interest. No mobile app at time of writing. Best for established registered charities that want a sector-specialist bank.

Unity Trust Bank. The ethical commercial bank, owned by The Co-operative Bank in part. Particularly strong for parish councils, social enterprises and trade unions. Tier 1 (low turnover) is cheap; tiers 2 and 3 are negotiated. Native multi-signatory authority. £500 opening deposit. Partners with Post Office, NatWest and RBS for counter access. No mobile app. ~4 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Annual Unity Impact Grants for account holders.

Metro Bank Community Current. The cash-handling specialist. 200 free transactions a month (£0.30 each after); £10,000 free cash deposit; free coin counting in branch; extended branch hours. Eligibility commonly cited as turnover under £2m. Strong app. Best for lottery-night clubs, churches, fete-cash organisations.

Virgin Money / Clydesdale Charity & Clubs. Strong digital experience with Xero and QuickBooks integration, digital cheque deposit, free banking under £1m turnover, debit-card cashback on some tariffs. A genuine middle option for groups outgrowing volunteer-grade banking but not ready for charity-specialist depth.

For new CICs without charity status

Two practical patterns:

Charity-specialist: Co-op (accepts CICs); Unity Trust (accepts CICs); CAF Bank (some unregistered with review). Slower onboarding but stronger sector fit.
Fintech / limited-company: Starling and Tide both accept CICs as limited companies with much faster onboarding (days, not weeks). Starling charity account requires no more than 4 trustees signing — suits small modern CIOs. Tide CIC plans tier from a free entry tier. Cashplus also CIC-friendly. Mettle (a NatWest brand) is limited-company friendly but typically does not accept charities or CIOs.

If your CIC's timeline doesn't allow for the specialist banks' onboarding, Starling or Tide will get you operational in a few days. Once trading volume justifies a relationship-managed bank, migrate.

The Co-op’s 31 March 2026 change

The Co-operative Bank's Charity & Community Account is closing to new unregulated client accounts from 31 March 2026. Existing customers are unaffected. “Unregulated” in this context broadly means organisations that are not on a public regulator's register — so unregistered community groups are within the scope of the change.

Practical implication: if you're an unregistered group currently thinking about banking, apply to the Co-op before31 March 2026 if it's your preferred option. After that date, Unity Trust becomes the only major specialist still openly accepting unregistered community groups.

Exact scope (e.g. parish councils, certain unregistered charities below the £5k threshold) should be confirmed directly with the bank before relying on this — the bank's published notice was high-level at the time of writing.

How to actually open a community group bank account

Adopt a written constitution. Even informal groups need one to open an account. Charity Commission model CC22a for charitable unincorporated associations is a sensible starting point.
Match the account name exactly to your governing document (and Charity Commission register, where applicable). Mismatches are the most common cause of rejection.
Pass a formal resolution. A constituted meeting (committee, board, AGM) must resolve to open the account and authorise specified signatories. Minute the resolution; banks ask to see it.
Gather KYC documentation for every named signatory: photo ID, proof of address (last 3 months), trustee details for the Charity Commission register where applicable.
Apply. Most specialist banks have online application forms; Co-op and Unity also accept phone/post. CAF Bank application is online.
Allow 6–16 weeks for the specialist banks; days for fintech CIC accounts.
Set up dual authority (“two-to-sign”) from day one. The Charity Commission's internal-financial-controls guidance effectively expects this. Unity Trust, Co-op and CAF support dual / triple authority natively.
Run a second account at a different licence for reserves above £85,000 (FSCS limit per banking licence — note Lloyds/HBOS share a licence; NatWest/RBS/Ulster share one).
Keep the account active. Move a small sum at least quarterly to avoid dormancy flags. Dormant accounts are the most common closure trigger.
Write a banking and signatory policy that survives a change of treasurer. The next treasurer will thank you.

If you’re refused or closed

Make a formal written complaintto the bank, referencing the FCA Consumer Duty (in force since July 2023) and the Charity Commission's November 2023 open letter to UK bank CEOs about substandard charity service.
Escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service if unresolved. Eligible micro-enterprises and small charities under £6.5m turnover qualify. The FOS treats charity-specialist complaints with reasonable seriousness.
Notify the FCAvia the pattern-of-complaints route (0800 111 6768) if there's evidence of systemic de-risking against the charity sector.
Apply elsewhere in parallel.Don't wait for resolution — the FOS process takes months and the charity needs a working account.
Document the experience. The sector infrastructure bodies (NCVO, ACEVO, NAVCA, Charity Finance Group) collect this evidence; it eventually shifts regulator action.

Get a quote from Unity Trust Get a quote from Starling

Frequently asked

Can we open a community group account in someone’s personal name?

Don't. Personal accounts holding community funds create a tax problem for the individual (the funds may be treated as theirs), an audit-trail problem for the group (no visibility, no dual authority), and a continuity problem (what happens when they move house or die). Open a proper account in the group's name even if you have to wait a few weeks.

Why does it take 6–16 weeks?

Anti-money-laundering rules require banks to KYC every named signatory and verify the governing document. For charity-specialist banks, this is genuinely slow because the process is more rigorous than for a standard SME. Plan for it; apply early.

Are charity accounts free?

Most specialist charity accounts charge £5/month or similar; some mainstream bank Treasurers' / Charity accounts (Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Virgin Money) are free below stated turnover thresholds. Compare free under-£1m offers if you're small; the £5 specialist fee is worth paying if you value the trustee expertise.

Does our community group need its own bank account, or can we use the parish council’s?

Almost always its own. Mixing community-group funds with parish-council funds blurs governance, complicates audit, and exposes the council's clerk and councillors to fiduciary risk over funds they haven't formally accepted responsibility for. Many parish councils now refuse this arrangement explicitly. Run a separate account.

We’re a small CIC. Should we use Tide / Starling or a charity-specialist bank?

For speed: Starling or Tide will have you operational in days. For sector fit and the long term: Co-op or Unity Trust accept CICs and bring stronger understanding of the CIC asset lock and CIC34 reporting. A common pattern is to start with a fintech account for the first 1–2 years and migrate to a charity-specialist bank as the operation grows.

How do we handle FSCS protection above £85,000?

Split balances across different banking licences. Lloyds and HBOS share a licence. NatWest, RBS and Ulster share one. Most other banks have their own. For a charity holding £150,000 in reserves, the standard pattern is a transactional account at Co-op or Unity plus a savings account at a separate bank (CCLA's COIF / Public Sector Deposit Fund is widely used for surplus charity cash).

Related guides

Sources

Charity Commission Trustee Survey 2024 (42% poor bank service finding)
FCA, UK Payment Accounts: Access and Closures (September 2023); FCA September 2024 follow-up report
Charity Commission open letter to UK bank CEOs (November 2023)
Co-operative Bank Charity & Community product information; published notice re unregulated client accounts closing 31 March 2026
CAF Bank product information; CAF Resilience Fund
Unity Trust Bank product information
Metro Bank Community Current product information
Virgin Money / Clydesdale Charity & Clubs product information
Starling Bank Charity Account; Tide CIC product information
Lloyds Treasurers' Account; Bank of Scotland Treasurers' product information
FCA Consumer Duty (in force 31 July 2023; closed books 31 July 2024)
Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) deposit limit £85,000 per banking licence

General information, not regulated financial advice. Bank terms, eligibility caps and fees move regularly — confirm current detail with each bank before applying.