Bank Accounts

The Ministry Area Council (MAC) is the trustee body of the charity. It is for the MAC to determine how it wishes to control the use of bank accounts. It is important to remember that the MAC cannot delegate the responsibility for the charity's finances. It can, however, choose to delegate operational powers, but it will need to set clear details of what is delegated and ensure that any delegated powers are helping to deliver the charity's stated outcomes. The MAC may also decide to withdraw any delegated powers.

Name of Bank Account

The MAC/Trustees are responsible for their charity's bank accounts and should ensure appropriate controls are in place to ensure that they are operating as intended and are consistent with internal financial records.

By far the simplest and most manageable model is to have one bank account, in the name of the MA. However, it is recognised that this can only take place once a Ministry Area has built strong and trusting working relationships. Even then, this model may not fit the operational needs of some Ministry Areas. The MAC will need to agree how it wishes to operate in this regard. The Finance Sub-Committee may be asked to assist in the review, recommendation and re-visiting of this provision.

A new bank account will need to be set up to accommodate transactions that can only be made by Ministry Area, e.g. HRMC receipts, Insurance payments, group expenditure. Any retained bank accounts (as directed by the MAC) will need to be linked to the name and the charity of the MA. The procedure for this may differ from bank to bank. One potential naming structure is:

All bank accounts should be included in the My Fund Accounting software to enable analyses by the Trustees.

Signatories

Charities are required to have a minimum of two signatories on each bank account as part of a dual authorisation process.

We would suggest having at least 4 signatories on any MA account as best practice as this will reduce the risk of payments being delayed due to the unavailability of a signatory.

For individual church bank accounts we suggest that the four signatories should include at least two MA Trustees (ideally the MA Treasurer and the church representative on the MAC. In this way, day-to-day business can still be carried, but the MAC Trustees have the confidence that, if needed, they are able to access account information and have an overview of their financial commitments.