Understanding our eligibility criteria
Our approach to purpose‑led banking
At Unity, our mission is to help build a better society by supporting organisations that create social, economic and environmental impact in their communities. Your deposits enable us to lend to organisations delivering meaningful change, so we carefully assess every application to ensure it aligns with our purpose.
What we offer
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Business Banking |
No matter the size of your organisation, our current accounts can support your daily banking needs. |
Our customers include a wide range of sectors, including charities, education, healthcare, housing associations, local councils, responsible finance providers, trade unions, and other socially minded businesses and organisations. Please visit our Current account & savings account opening FAQs page for more information. |
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Deposits |
We offer a range of business savings accounts to suit your organisation and earn you interest, including fixed, notice and interest only accounts. |
The money you deposit will help us to help other organisations make a real difference to society. Explore our Impact Report to understand how we turn our mission into meaningful action and the results we’ve achieved so far. Discover the ways our approach is creating positive change for people, communities, and the planet. |
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Lending |
We offer loans over £250,000. We’re committed to ensuring all our lending drives positive impact, so we assess them against UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). |
We lend to a range of sectors, such as healthcare, education, social housing, supported living, or helping create jobs in areas of deprivation. We also support customers looking to improve environmental outcomes through decarbonisation, retrofit and other green initiatives. Read the stories of some of the customers we’ve provided funding to. |
Eligibility criteria
The information below applies to most applications but we assess each customer on their own merits, so there may be instances where we ask for more details to process your application.
Payment activity |
Current accounts
Savings accounts
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Sectors |
Sectors we support
We’re committed to ensuring that our lending reinforces our mission to drive positive change where it’s needed most. We provide finance, business and saving accounts to businesses and organisations that want to create a better society. Our customers include a wide range of sectors, including charities, education, healthcare, housing associations, local councils, responsible finance providers, trade unions, and other socially minded businesses and organisations. Charities
We don’t fund harmful industries We’re committed to making sure that we don’t fund harmful industries. This means that we don’t bank or lend to organisations involved in gambling, adult entertainment, fossil fuels, arms, wildlife trade or heavy emission sectors. Other sectors we currently cannot support We currently cannot onboard organisations that offer digital currency, crypto, foreign currency, pre-paid money wallets, money transfer and bureau de change. |
Paying in cash and cheques |
We don’t have branches. You can pay in cash or cheques to us using NatWest, RBS, or Ulster Bank branches.
If your main source of funds is cash, we may not be the right bank to service your needs. Please contact us to discuss your requirements before completing an application. |
International payments |
We complete a customer risk assessments (CRA) for every customer. If you’ll be making a high volume of international payments or need to send money to high-risk jurisdictions, this may impact your CRA rating. Please contact us to discuss your requirements and check that we’ll be able to offer the services you need before completing your application. We cannot make international payments to countries subject to financial sanctions. |
Location |
As a UK based bank, we don’t bank with organisations located outside of the UK, or where more than 25% of shares are owned offshore by an entity or individual. |
Modern slavery |
We’re committed to preventing modern slavery in all its forms. We conduct rigorous checks to ensure we do not work with organisations involved in exploitation, forced labour or unethical employment practices. Please review our Modern Slavery Statement for more details. |
Lending criteria |
We only lend or provide banking services to organisations which deliver positive social or environmental outcomes through their activities and subject to appropriate credit assessments. Loan amounts, as standard, are between £250,000 and £40m. Exceptional requests for higher amounts will be considered, subject to credit approval. We will also consider all loan amounts for Fixed Rate Loans where the original loan amount with Unity was £500,000 or more. |
Knowing our customers
Why we carry out checks
When you apply for an account, and during your relationship with us, we’ll need to undertake checks to verify your details. These checks are part of our regulatory requirements and allow us to:
- Identify customers and any person who owns or controls more than a certain percentage of the entity.
- Understand where customers’ funds come from.
Some of the information we may ask for:
- Identification and verification documents e.g. proof of identity, proof of address, registered charity number, trust deed etc.
- Organisation registered name and details of any other trading names used.
- Date established or planned date of trading.
- Previous banking details.
- Source of funds for the initial deposit and where income mainly comes from e.g. selling goods, providing a service, subscriptions, donations.
- Main business activity e.g. what services and products you provide. There are some industries where more information will be required, for example those that are regulated by a professional body.
- Ownership of the organisation or control structure.
- Where you’ll be operating and transacting.
If you’re unable to provide verifiable documents, you’ll be unable to open or retain an account with us.
Regular reviews
We’ll need to regularly update the information we hold about your organisation to help keep your account secure and ensure we’re meeting our regulatory responsibilities. These simple Know Your Customer (KYC) checks help us prevent financial crime including money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud, by confirming who we’re working with and helping us spot anything unusual. By keeping your details current, you help us protect your organisation and maintain a safe banking environment in line with the Money Laundering Regulations.
Legal Notice
All applications are subject to status and eligibility criteria.
We may not be able to accept all signatories listed on your application. As part of our legal obligations, we must verify the identity of everyone connected to the account. This includes electronic checks using the information you provide, and in some cases we may request additional details or documentation. If any individual linked to the account is a non‑UK resident or a non‑UK tax resident, further information may be required.
If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified, we will share the relevant details with fraud prevention agencies to help prevent fraud and money‑laundering.
Creating impact together
Why who you bank with matters
