Eligibility and assessment criteria

1. Your company is a legally incorporated entity.

2. Your company is a financial institution (FI) that is registered with, or authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and/or by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to provide financial services within the UK or registered with the Financial Conduct Authority’s temporary permissions regime. Our eligibility criteria comprise the following:

• Authorised e-money institutions
• Authorised payment institutions
• Banks
• Building societies
• Credit unions
• Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) regulated financial institutions
• Insurance firms
• Investment and wealth management firms
• Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (IoM FSA) regulated financial institutions
• Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) regulated financial institutions
• Pension firms
• Registered digital asset firms
• Small e-money institutions
• Small payment institutions
• Currently applying to be registered or authorised with the FCA and/or PRA

3. If your company is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) and in scope for the APP Scam Reimbursement Policy, you must be registered with Pay.UK to gain full access to our products and services. If you are a PSP and believe you are out of scope, you must inform Pay.UK.

4. Your company is not a micro-enterprise. Micro-enterprises are defined as an enterprise which:

• employs fewer than 10 persons; and
• has a turnover or annual balance sheet that does not exceed €2 million euros

ClearBank will assess your application against the following criteria:

1. Your Financial Crime Compliance framework – You will need to demonstrate a robust framework by providing up-to-date procedures and documentation on your Financial Crime Compliance controls, including the systems and controls to manage money laundering, financial sanctions and fraud risk. You will also need to demonstrate you have a competent MLRO and adequately resourced financial crime team for your operations.

2. Business Viability – You will need to demonstrate your financial status, business and operating model. This also includes providing monthly and annual transactional volumes, including the associated payment value forecast for ClearBank to assess capacity requirements, operational risks and determine pricing.

3. Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) – You will need to provide us with sufficient responses and documentation to enable ClearBank to develop a full understanding of your customer base, payment flow and business model. This also includes providing relevant certified documentation to evidence the current shareholding and directorship of your company.

4. Legal and Scheme Compliance – You need to comply with payment system rules (Bacs, CHAPS and Faster Payments) and all other applicable laws.

1. Your company is a legally incorporated entity.

2. Your company is a financial institution that is registered with or authorised by an appropriate regulator authority within the European Economic Area (EEA). Our eligibility criteria comprise the following:

• Authorised payment institutions
• Banks
• EEA branch or subsidiary of a foreign bank
• Electronic money institutions
• Insurance firms including reinsurance firms
• Investment and wealth management firms
• Pension firms
• Registered digital asset firms
• Other financially regulated institutions

3. Your company is not a micro-enterprise. Micro-enterprises are defined as an enterprise which:

• employs fewer than 10 persons; and
• has a turnover or annual balance sheet that does not exceed €2 million euros

ClearBank will assess your application against the following criteria:

1. Financial Crime Risk Management

We assess whether your organisation has an effective financial crime risk management framework that is appropriate for the nature of your business and the services you intend to provide through ClearBank.

Our assessment may include completion of due diligence questionnaires, such as the Correspondent Banking Due Diligence Questionnaire (CBDDQ), together with targeted requests for information covering areas including anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions, fraud prevention, customer due diligence, transaction monitoring and governance arrangements. Where appropriate, we may request additional supporting information on a risk-sensitive basis.

2. Business Viability, Financial Standing and Product Suitability

We assess whether your organisation is financially, operationally and strategically positioned to support a long-term relationship with ClearBank, and whether the products and services requested are appropriate for your business model and intended use.

Our assessment considers factors such as your business strategy, financial position, funding model, implementation readiness, expected transaction profile, anticipated account activity and the suitability of the proposed products and services for your organisation, customers and operating model.

3. Customer, Ownership and Business Model

We seek to develop a comprehensive understanding of your organisation, how it is owned, how it operates and the nature of the business activities it undertakes.

This includes understanding your legal and regulatory status, ownership and control structure, governance arrangements, products and services, customer base, target markets, geographic footprint and key business relationships. We also assess the purpose of the proposed relationship, expected payment and funds flows, anticipated transaction activity and any outsourcing, agency or intermediary arrangements that form part of your operating model.

4. Legal, Regulatory, Scheme and Operational Compliance

We assess whether your organisation is able to meet the legal, regulatory, operational and payment scheme requirements relevant to the proposed relationship and the services you intend to use.

Depending on the products and services requested, this may include consideration of applicable laws and regulatory requirements, payment scheme participation rules, operational and technical capabilities, information security, operational resilience, business continuity, outsourcing arrangements and, where relevant, regulatory obligations applicable to crypto-asset services.