Board minute for new bank signatory 

You’ve decided that it would make your life easier if your assistant could also deal with the bank, i.e. sign cheques, make online payments, etc. How easy is it to set this up?

Board minute

Having to deal with small payments can be both tedious and time consuming. So adding your assistant as an authorised cheque signatory might free up some time to spend on more important/interesting matters. However, whether you are adding your assistant as an account signatory or a new director, you will have a lot of form filling to do. And as this is not something that can be finalised at branch level, your duly completed lengthy form will have to be sent off to some central administrative department of the bank to be checked.

One of the things you will need to complete for the bank’s application form is a Board Minute For New Bank Signatory to the account. To help get board approval, restrict the new signatory’s signing limit to, say, £2,000, with an unlimited amount only for two authorised signatories.

Follow up

Don’t sit back and expect your application to be processed automatically. Get hold of the phone number of the processing centre and chase them to confirm that the form has been received and logged onto their system. Keep a copy of your original application just in case you need to resubmit it.

Once your documentation has been logged as received, one of the main hold-ups will be the identity checks imposed by the Money Laundering Regulations. However, if the party being added to the company’s account is already a customer of the bank, this will shortcut the identity check process. If not, they’ll need to take two forms of ID to their local branch.

If you have more than one account with the bank, it has been known for the admin unit just to register the new signatory against only one account. Ensure that you make it clear on the application form which accounts you want the new signatory to be included on.