Savings restrictions

jimjames

What sort of employment restricts who you can hold a bank account with? My employer has no idea who I have accounts with.

colsten

jimjames wrote: »

What sort of employment restricts who you can hold a bank account with? My employer has no idea who I have accounts with.

I have heard of companies insisting that their employees hold accounts with themselves (e.g. Nationwide) but that is not to the exclusion of other banks, and I have never heard of any employer who limits their employees' choice of banking. I would go as far as saying it is illegal for a UK employer to dictate a blacklist of banks to their employees. But then, it is probably just a huge misunderstanding on the OP's behalf.

Chris2000

colsten wrote: »

I have never heard of any employer who limits their employees' choice of banking. I would go as far as saying it is illegal for a UK employer to dictate a blacklist of banks to their employees. But then, it is probably just a huge misunderstanding on the OP's behalf.

I don't know but I'd guess maybe staff who work for the independent auditor are not allowed to have a banking relationship with a bank they audit. RBS is audited by Deloitte. Barclays is currently audited by PwC but is expected to change auditors.

bowlhead99

When I was at an independent auditor we didn't have restrictions on companies we could have an arms-length retail relationship with, we simply had a restricted list on whom we could hold shares in, as obviously it's 'not on' for those independently signing off the financial performance to have a financial interest in the outcome of the report. However, I was not at director/partner level in those days and it's feasible that more senior people have more restrictions on financial products they buy to preserve the illusion of independence.

Alternatively perhaps an industry regulator or other party attempting to carry out an unbiased investigation would discourage its staff from holding deposit accounts and borrowing accounts with the people it investigates; seems only proper to eliminate all bias even if difficult to operate in practice.

So, I don't think it is 'illegal' for an employer to blacklist banks but the impracticality of doing it does make it unlikely that someone is restricted from opening a simple current account or savings account on regular high street terms if they are not actively involved with the project or investigation that he employer is carrying out. And if they already had one when their involvement started, it is unlikely they would be forced to close it or be thrown off the team. A restriction on shares trading is much more common.