Money mules are people used to help launder money, often without realising that’s what they’re doing. They help move illegitimate funds (money gained illegally) between accounts so that the money then appears to be legitimate. They may be asked to receive money into their account, then withdraw it and put it into another account, sometimes in another country. Sometimes the money mules are offered compensation or commission.

Even if money mules don’t know the money they’re transferring is fraudulent, they are still committing fraud and money laundering, and could be sentenced to time in prison or to pay a fine.

Money mules are often recruited into this activity through false job adverts, or social media posts that promote quick money-making opportunities. Sometimes they are duped by fake social media profiles that pretend to want a romantic relationship with the victim to gain their trust and affection before asking this favour or blackmailing them. This is also known as romance fraud.

Never move money between accounts you don’t know and trust, especially because someone else has asked you to, or if you don’t know where that money has come from. If you are suspicious of money laundering, call us immediately on 0330 355 0355.

Fraudsters often look for data on people that they can use to impersonate or defraud them.

They may research you or your colleagues, so we advise that you educate your staff about protecting their data and ensure they are fraud aware too.

What kind of data might a fraudster steal?

• Personal details, such as your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number.
• Contact details like your mobile phone, landline, work number and email address(es).
• Memorable information used for security and passwords, such as mother’s maiden name, schools or university attended, pet names, car makes and names of family members.
• Your bank account number, sort code and card details.
• PINs, passwords, Digipass number or other login details.

Ways fraudsters might get hold of your data:

• Social media and online forums – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit – all public platforms could hold a wealth of information about you, your employees, your business and your customers.
• Your company website – if your business has a website, consider what information you include. We advise you not to put your bank details on your website, as fraudsters can use this to impersonate you or your bank.
• Competitions and quizzes – particularly those found on social media websites.
• Calling you and pretending to be a trusted organisation.
• Companies who sell your email address or phone number - always read terms and conditions when signing up for a product or service.
• Bank statements, post and paper documents. Always lock away documents that hold sensitive information and destroy them when no longer required.
• Hacking into email accounts. Ensure your IT systems are secure and be wary of using shared internet connections outside of work. Consider that your suppliers, customers and partners can also have their emails hacked. We recommend that you do not share sensitive data via email – if you need to, encrypt the information with a password.
  

Yes, you can split your ISA allowance into different types of ISA: Cash, Stocks & Shares, Lifetime, and Innovative Finance.

Do not respond to any email that asks you for information about your internet banking log in details. If you have received a suspicious email, do not respond and call our Contact Team as soon as you can during our opening hours on 0330 355 0355 to check if it is a genuine email.

Our Contact Team is available 8am-6pm Monday-Friday, and 10am-4pm on weekends for fraud related enquiries only.

Outside of these hours you can request a call back using our automated system. Our Contact Team will call you back as close to the time you request as is operational possible. Alternatively please email us at contact@triodos.co.uk from the registered email address we hold for you and mark it urgent in the subject line.

If the text is from a sender you know, or from a shortcode (five to eight digits long):

• Reply ‘STOP’. You shouldn’t be charged for this, and it will let the sender know you don’t want to receive their text messages.
• If you’re unhappy about receiving the text or continue to receive them after asking the sender to stop, you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on 0303 123 1113 or online.

If the spoof text message (sometimes known as smishing) is from an unknown sender, or from an organisation you’re not familiar with:

• Do not reply or click on a link in the text. Responding confirms your number is active and could result in you receiving more messages or calls.
• Report the spam text to your network operator. Simply forward the text to 7726. An easy way to remember ‘7726’ is that they’re the numbers on your phone keypad that spell out the word ‘SPAM’. You may get an automated response thanking you for the report and giving you further instructions if needed, like forwarding on the number the spam text message was sent from. You won’t be charged for forwarding spam texts to 7726.
  

The ISA allowance is the maximum amount you can invest across all types of ISAs in any one tax year. You can put your whole allowance into a particular type of ISA or you can split it between the different types of ISAs: Cash, Stocks & Shares, Lifetime and Innovative Finance. The ISA allowance for the 2020/21 tax year is £20,000. For Junior Cash ISAs, the allowance is £9,000.

You can make payments into your Triodos Current Account by bank transfer or online. If you wish to pay a cheque into your account you can send cheques via our freepost service to our office in Bristol - Freepost TRIODOS BANK. Please include the sort code and account number of the account you wish the cheque to be credited to.

Please note that in order to protect our staff and to help reduce the spread of the Coronavirus, all our offices are closed to visitors from the general public at this time. This means it is not possible to deliver cheques to our office in person.

We support charities, social enterprises, mission-aligned “for profit” businesses and renewable energy projects to raise “non-bank” finance. A typical client is one who has a clear commercial proposition with equally clear social, cultural or environmental impact and who needs a form of finance that banks are typically unwilling to provide.

Many of our clients start by seeking bank debt but, often, lack the security or collateral required by those banks. Nonetheless, that does not mean they are not able to raise and service capital to grow and achieve sustainability – they simply need an alternative form of finance, often from alternative sources. It’s typically our role to help them access this capital.

When it comes to capital raising we:

• Help our clients get investment ready – meaning that when they approach the investor market they stand the best chance of securing investment. This may involve writing business plans, building financial models to help forecast future performance, advising on suitable governance structures etc;
• Advise on the right form of capital for the organisation and the best source of that capital;
• Advise on the optimal terms of any capital and help negotiate with investors to secure those terms.

Vishing is where a fraudster uses voice messages or phone calls to try to steal identities, and financial information like your PIN, card details and Digipass code.

The term comes from the combination of ‘phishing’ and ‘voice’. Phishing is where fraudsters use email, regular phone calls and fake websites to dupe people into giving them personal details and financial information.

Vishing is specifically the use of a VOIP service (Voice Over Internet Protocol, or an internet phone service), which enables fraudsters to communicate with their potential victims via automated voice messages and the phone keypad.

Vishers can create fake caller ID profiles so that their phone number seems legitimate, and vishing requests sound urgent, to panic the victim into acting without thinking.

 Examples of vishing:

• Your bank account has been compromised
  You receive call from what appears to be Triodos Bank’s phone number. When you answer, you hear a recording pretending to be from Triodos, saying that your bank account has been compromised, and you need to call a freephone number to reset your security details. Calling this number, you would hear another automated message asking for your bank account number, Digipass code or other personal details via the phone keypad.
• You’re eligible for a loan
  You are offered loan or credit terms too good to be true (they probably are), and to receive the money, you just need to pay an upfront fee or provide your security details.
• You’re due a refund
  You receive a message that says you are due a refund. This is usually someone claiming to be from a trusted organisation. If you opt in – usually by pressing a number on your telephone - you will be redirected to a call centre agent who will attempt to defraud you or steal your information.
• Don’t miss this investment opportunity
  An automated voice message tells you about an investment opportunity too good to turn down. You’ll be encouraged to transfer money to invest in a company or service that doesn’t exist.
• You’ve won a prize
  Victims hear an automated voice message about a free offer or prize, and just need to pay postage, redemption or admin fees to claim. There’s often a deadline to hurry people into handing over their card details.

What you can do

If you receive an unexpected phone call with an automated response, hang up, search for the company’s genuine contact details online and check whether the call was legitimate. If it was, the company will be able to help you, and if it was a vishing attempt, letting the company know enables them to take action, and you will have protected yourself from fraud.

If the call relates to an investment opportunity, check the FCA register to see if the investor is regulated, and confirm the company exists by checking Companies House.

How to report a vishing scam

If you think you have been a victim of a vishing attack, call us immediately on 0330 355 0355. Then report to the FCA using their reporting form.

If you have lost money to suspected investment fraud, report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Screen scraping happens when you allow a third party to log into your computer while you are using it, so they see what you are doing and can copy the data on the screens you are viewing. This is a way for third parties to be able to get access to your payment data or account overview.

Triodos Bank is not in favour of this practice, as it potentially compromises the integrity of your own computer and your passwords.

It can be very difficult to spot a fraudulent call. The best thing you can do if you get an unexpected call – especially if the person is asking you to make a payment or move funds, or rushing you to make a decision – is to call the organisation back on the number published on their website.

Fraudsters may call you or someone in your team and pretend to be a well-known business like BT, the bank, HMRC, the police, a supplier or even another person in your business.

Examples of what a fraudster might ask you to do:

• Move your money to a safe, secure holding account
  Fraudsters often call businesses pretending to be from their bank. They may ask you to move your money to a safe account because of suspected fraud or risk to your account. In reality, this ‘safe’ account is controlled by the fraudster. Hang up and report it to Action Fraud UK and your bank.
  
• Change the payment details of one of your suppliers
  Fraudsters often impersonate suppliers and ask businesses to pay into a new account – controlled by the fraudster. Check the caller is genuinely your supplier by calling back on the number on their website or, better still, by calling your direct contact at the company.
• Download something – software, a programme, app or other online tool
  Fraudsters may tell you there’s something wrong with your computer and it’s not secure. By downloading some software, they’ll be able to fix it for you. They might even offer you compensation or a refund for this inconvenience. In reality, the downloaded software could give them access to your computer. They may ask you to log in to your internet banking so they can issue your refund, when really they’re asking you to authorise payments into their own account. Triodos will never call you out of the blue and ask you to transfer money into another account, or download something onto your device.
• Tell them your Digipass codes
  Your Digipass codes give permission for money to leave your account. Never give these codes, no matter what they tell you. We will never ask you for these codes.
  

Yes, there are charges for foreign payments. Transactions will be processed using the exchange rate set by Mastercard

• Debit card payment in a foreign currency: 2.5% of the value charged in GBP
  
• Cash withdrawal in a foreign currency outside the UK: 2.5% of the value charged in GBP
  

See our tariff of charges for full details or the Fee Information Document for more information.

We will not charge you for cash withdrawals from any ATM in the UK. However, some ATM providers may charge for using their machines to withdraw cash. There is a charge for withdrawing cash from abroad, please see our tariff for details.

To top up your Triodos Stocks & Shares ISA, download and complete the Stocks & Shares ISA top-up form below and email it to clientservices@tbailey.co.uk – this is the company that we use to  process our investments.

Remember, to invest in the Triodos Impact Funds you:

• must be a UK resident
  
• should see your investment as long term (5-10 years), because it can go down in value as well as up, and you may not get back what you invest. Income is variable and not guaranteed.
• understand your total return is subject to the euro-sterling exchange rate, because the Triodos impact funds are operated in euros and quoted in sterling.
• should ask an independent financial advisor if  you're unsure which investment is right for you. Triodos Bank doesn’t offer financial advice.

You should also read the important information needed to make an informed decision about your investment:

• Terms and conditions
  
• Supplementary Information Document
  
• Addendum to the T&Cs and SID
  
• Prospectus
  
• Key Investor Information Documents:
  • Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund KR-Cap
    
  • Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund KR-Dis
    
  • Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund KR-Cap
    
  • Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund KR-Dis
    

If you receive a call from Triodos, we’ll be happy for you to question who we are and call us back on the number published on our website, just to make sure. If you can, call us back from a different phone, as an extra safety precaution. Fraudsters can clone numbers, so it may look like the number we use to call you.

We will never call you to ask you to transfer money or for your Digipass codes, and we will never ask you to download software onto your device. If someone calls pretending to be from Triodos, and they ask you to do these things, hang up immediately and report it to us on 0330 355 0355.

We’ll write to you one month before your bond matures, asking you where you’d like your funds to go. If you have internet banking you will be able to make your choice online and can decide to either reinvest or transfer your matured funds to another account. If we don’t hear from you before your bond matures, we’ll open a Triodos Saver account on your behalf and write to let you know. There will always be opportunities for you to reinvest your money with Triodos, and we hope you choose to do so.

Cash cannot be paid in to the Triodos Personal Current Account at the moment. However we are in discussion with a number of providers to investigate if we can offer this service in the future as we understand from customer feedback that this is a service that some customers would like us to offer.

You can open a Triodos Innovative Finance ISA if you are resident in the UK for tax purposes and are over 18 years of age.

We offer two impact investment funds - the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund and the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund. Both funds are available in two different share classes, distribution and capitalisation.

The minimum initial investment per Impact Investment Fund is £1,000, and the minimum top up amount is £500 per fund.

The minimum holding amount is £500 per share class. This means that your initial investment must be at least £1,000 per impact investment fund and £500 per share class. In addition to this, you are not able to sell part of your holding and leave a positive balance of below £500, and you will either need to sell your entire holding in that share class or if applicable a smaller amount.

Our primary feature regarding the digipass device is that of security. Our current providers VASCO have confirmed that the digipass can be recycled and if you wish to return your digipass to us if you no longer require it we will recycle it securely on your behalf.

If you'd like to write to us, you can do so freepost at:

Freepost TRIODOS BANK

Our freepost address is Royal Mail registered and simple to use - write it on your envelope exactly as shown above (no stamp required) and your letter will get to us free of charge by second class mail.

For first class mail, you can post in the normal way to:

Triodos Bank
Deanery Road
Bristol
BS1 5AS

As an online bank, we don't provide counter banking services, but we're always pleased to meet with our business customers - simply make an appointment with your relationship manager.

Our regional business banking offices can be found at:

Triodos Bank
20 Old Bailey
London
EC4M 7LN

Triodos Bank
50 Frederick Street
Edinburgh
EH2 1EX

Yes.

We can pay it on the first of each month into an account you choose when you apply, or we pay it annually each January and at the end when the bond matures.

You can save any amount between £500 and £1,000,000.

You can switch between funds and share classes by completing a fund switch form. 

A fund switch is when you sell your holding in one fund or share class and buy back another. For example, if you hold the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund and want to switch to the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund you should download and complete the fund switch form. This will instruct us to sell your holding in the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund and buy back the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund.

We don’t charge for carrying out this instruction and the switch takes place at the same valuation point, however you must still meet the minimum investment amount of £1,000 and minimum top up amount of £500.

If you would like to switch, please ensure you have read the relevant Key Investor Information Document (KIID) which can be found under Key Documents.

Please note, when selling your holding outside of an ISA you will realise a capital gain or loss. Most individuals have a capital gains allowance of £12,300 (for the 2020/21 tax year), below which there is no charge on gains. If you happen to make a capital loss this can be used to offset future capital gains.

Tree-oh-dos

You can open a Triodos Ethical Junior Cash ISA account, and transfer the funds from your Right Start Saver into it, subject to the Junior ISA allowance of £9,000 for the 2020/21 tax year.

This depends entirely on you. We first help to determine what kind of capital you need. We then ensure we find the right mix of investors to provide it.

We have unique access to approximately 4,000 socially-minded retail investor contacts via our existing investor database and our investment crowdfunding platform – we’re the only UK bank to offer its own crowdfunding platform. These social investors are keen to make a positive impact with their money, as well as earn a financial return.

Over the last 20 years, we have also developed strong relationships with an increasingly wide range of other investors including:

• Charitable trusts and foundations
• Social investment funds
• Family offices
• Housing associations
• Private banks and wealth managers
• IFAs and financial planners

In recent years, we’ve raised over £150m capital for over 60 impact projects and from a blend of these investors.

Identity fraud happens when someone steals and uses your personal information to buy products or services. They get hold of this information in many ways - taking post from your bin, looking for information about you online, or contacting you directly, pretending to be from a real organisation.

There are several things you can do – offline and online - to protect your personal information. Here are a few tips.

Protect yourself offline:

1. Shred your post
   Shred or cut up your post before putting it in the bin, so your name and address cannot be stolen.
2. Redirect your post
   If you move house, ask Royal Mail to redirect your post for at least a year.
3. Be tidy
   Don’t leave things like bills or personal documents lying around for others to see. Even on your work desk.
4. Know your bank
   This sounds like an odd one, but knowing how your bank will and won’t contact you can help you spot fraudulent emails, texts or calls claiming to be from your bank. If a bank statement or new bank card doesn’t arrive, tell your bank or card company immediately.

Protect yourself online:

1. Create complex passwords
   Create strong passwords and different passwords for every online account you have (email, online banking, social media, retail websites etc). Avoid using personal information in passwords, like names of family, school, pets, cars. This will reduce the likelihood that someone could guess or hack your password and access other platforms you use. You might find a password management tool useful.
2. Use anti-virus software
   Protect your internet-connected devices with up-to-date security software, and make sure you install all official software updates and security fixes on your devices.
3. Connect with those you know
   Don’t accept invitations from people you don’t know on social media sites.
4. Be wifi wise
   Public wifi connections and Hotspots can be hacked and used to see what you’re doing online. Whilst it’s fine to use public wifi for browsing, never use it for buying something, logging in, online banking, filling in forms – or anything else that requires your personal or card data.
5. Be private
   Double-check that your social media profiles are private so that you’re only sharing information with people you know.
6. Think before you post
   Before you post anything on social media, forums or online platforms, make sure you’re not revealing any personal information – even pictures of your car registration can be used to get your address from DVLA records.

Triodos will be offering Open Banking services from 14 September 2019, enabling providers to integrated their apps and tools with our systems via their API. Triodos will only facilitate the sharing of your account information with other parties when you have provided your explicit consent for us to do so. Find out more about Open Banking.

Triodos Bank does not offer credit cards for personal or business customers in the UK at present. We regularly review the products and services that we offer along with customer feedback to determine and prioritise future enhancements. However this is not a product we are looking to launch in the foreseeable future.

Triodos Bank uses the services of T. Bailey Fund Services Limited (TBFS) to administer Triodos Impact Investment Fund accounts.

To sell your Triodos Impact Investment please call T. Bailey on 0115 988 8213.

When calling us please make sure you have your name, address and security word to hand as we will need to verify your identity before accepting any instructions over the phone.

The proceeds of the sale will be sent to your nominated bank account within 3 business days of the dealing date.
Please note that if you are not selling the whole of your holding, a minimum fund balance of £500 applies.

Typically, our clients have a degree of sector track record and financial history against which we can appraise their performance. However, we have worked with several ‘new’ renewable energy projects where they have Feed-in-Tariff pre-accreditation (and hence visibility over future, government-backed income streams) and where we are familiar with the management team and construction partners involved from other projects.

Equally we might consider working with an established charity looking to develop a new social enterprise arm if the business case is compelling. We have also worked with one or two genuine start-up organisations where we felt the business case was robust, the impact was high and the quality of management clear.

So if there is clear visibility, or better still, contractual security over future income streams and cash inflows, we’d be happy to explore this with a prospective client but with the caveat that the majority of our clients are further progressed along their journey.

To top up a Triodos cash ISA you can:

• Make an online transfer from another account (either an account with another provider or another Triodos account that allows withdrawals).
• Transfer by cheque if the Triodos cash ISA you want to top up accepts cheque.

The following accounts do not accept cheque payments:

• Online Cash ISA
• Fixed Rate Cash ISAs
• 90 Day Notice Online Cash ISA
  

If you want to deposit a cheque, please post it along with your account details or a paying-in slip to: Freepost TRIODOS BANK

The Triodos Bank sort code is 16-58-10 and you can find your Triodos cash ISA account number on your statements.

Please note that in order to protect our co-workers and to help reduce the spread of the Coronavirus, all our offices are closed to visitors from the general public at this time. This means it is not possible to deliver cheques to our office in person.

The recent developments on the global stock markets inevitably impact the share prices of the companies invested within the Triodos Impact funds. Triodos Investment Management is monitoring the situation closely and, as normal, looking at both the financial and sustainability performance of the companies in the fund portfolios to ensure they continue to meet the financial and sustainable objectives of the funds. We are clear with all customers that the value of investments can go down as well as up and that investing should be considered for the long term.

It’s best to cut your card into pieces, making sure to cut through the chip and magnetic strip and put the card in with your normal waste, rather than your recycling. It will still biodegrade more quickly than any other debit card plastic. If possible, don’t put all the pieces of the card in the same bin or with any related documentation such as receipts or statements.

The person with legal parental responsibility who opened the account. When the account holder turns 16 the child may apply to be the account operator.

At least 30 days before the end, we’ll ask you where you want your money to be paid. This can be into a new bond if one is available. If we don’t hear from you, we will transfer it into a 33-day notice Saver account - however, we won't apply the 33-day notice restriction on withdrawals during the first 30 days of this new Saver account.

Triodos Bank does not offer mortgages for personal or business customers in the UK at present. We regularly review the products and services that we offer along with customer feedback to determine and prioritise future enhancements. However this is not a product we are looking to launch in the foreseeable future. We do offer this product in some of our European branches but at present there are no plans to launch in the UK. More about our business lending.

If for any reason you need to withdraw your money earlier than the notice period, you will need to write to us by post or secure message in internet banking.

At our discretion you may have access to your savings without waiting the notice period for Online Cash ISA, 90 Day Notice Online Cash ISA and Cash ISA.  However we will charge you the interest due on the amount withdrawn for the part of your notice period for which you have not given notice. So if you withdraw £500 on 15 Calendar Days’ notice from an Account set up on 90 Calendar Days’ notice, then a charge equivalent to the interest you would have earned on that £500 for 75 Calendar Days (i.e. 90 - 15) will be deducted from your Account.

For Fixed Rate ISAs withdrawals are not allowed until maturity. The only exception to this is if you close the account and/or transfer the full balance to another ISA.  Early closure will result in an early access charge being applied equivalent to a number of days of interest.

2 year term – 180 days’ interest

3 year term – 270 days’ interest

The charge will be taken from the account balance, so you may get back less than originally deposited.

Instructions given in internet banking to make a payment from your account will only be carried out after the expiry of any notice period on your account. Any attempt to schedule a payment before then will be rejected.

If you wish to change the details of your nominated account, you must send us a signed, written instruction by post to:

Freepost TRIODOS BANK

Our freepost address is Royal Mail registered and simple to use - write it on your envelope exactly as shown above (no stamp required) and your letter will get to us free of charge by second class mail.

For first class mail, you can post in the normal way to:

Triodos Bank
Deanery Road
Bristol
BS1 5AS

You are not able to amend your nominated account using Internet Banking. The instruction must include the details of the new nominated account (including the account name, six digit sort code and eight digit account number) and must be signed in accordance with the signature form previously returned to us. For joint accounts, the instruction must be signed by both account holders.

The new nominated account must be a personal sterling account held in your name(s) with another UK bank/building society or an existing Triodos UK account that allows you to transfer in funds.

We will not be able to process any written instructions unless we hold your signature on our records.

If you have not returned the signature reply form enclosed with your welcome letter sent to you when you first opened the account, please do so with your request to amend your nominated account. We may send further documents for you to sign to your registered address with us or request documents from you as an additional security measure before we will process your request.

If you cannot locate the signature reply form and you are still living at the address we have on our records then please send us a Secure Message from within internet banking to request a signature reply form. We will send this to your registered address for you to return to us together with your written request to amend your nominated account. We may send further documents for you to sign to your registered address with us or request documents from you as an additional security measure before we will process your request.

If we do not hold a signature for you on our records and you have moved from the address we hold for you on our records you will need to write to us with your new address and nominated account details enclosing one document from list A and one document from list B.

A - Identity Verification:

• Valid Passport
• Valid full or provisional UK / EU Drivers licence photo card or full old-style driving licence
• Valid identity card (EEA Member state or equivalent)
• HM Revenue & Customs HMRC Tax notification only (statement of account or notice of coding relating to the current year)
  

B -  Address Verification:

• Original bank or building society statement showing recent transactions dated within the last 3 months  
• Valid full or provisional UK / EU Drivers licence photo card or full old-style driving licence
• Current Council tax bill dated within the last 12 months
• Utility Bill dated within the last 3 months (mobile phone or broadband statements not acceptable)
• Mortgage statement within the last 12 months
      HM Revenue & Customs correspondence relating to current tax year or dated within the last 3 months (whichever is earlier), must contain National Insurance Number

We are part of the Current Account Switch Service so customers can switch current accounts to Triodos Bank from another UK bank or building society quickly and easily.

When you pay funds into your Account, your funds will start earning interest from the day the funds are paid into your Account.

Only people who are resident in the UK can apply for our accounts. You need to make the opening deposit in sterling, and provide proof of your ID and address.

You have various options for contacting Triodos to ask questions or request information. One of which is a secure messaging service which is accessed by logging in to your internet banking. You can send us a secure message and you will also receive secure messages from Triodos from time to time. When we do send you a message you will receive an e mail advising you to log in to internet banking to read it. Secure messages are responded to within our contact team opening hours of 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday, if your request is urgent please call us on 0330 335 0335.

Historically, smaller challenger banks such as Triodos had no option but to utilise one of the “big four” banks (RBS, Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays) for payment clearing services.

So it is not unusual to see banks of Triodos’ size (or indeed some far bigger organisations) still utilising the “big four” clearing banks.

However, there is currently a real drive by the government, via the Payments Systems Regulator, to promote competition in the banking sector and to encourage innovation in payment systems.

This has resulted in a wider choice of clearing options (including alternative providers and/or direct clearing) now available to challenger banks.

While changing our clearing arrangements would be a very large undertaking we will continue to review the options in the future, remaining conscious of maintaining a high quality of service for all our customers.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ISA rules require you to make a declaration, when applying to open an ISA. This is to confirm that you are eligible to subscribe to your ISA.

If you haven't subscribed to your ISA for a whole tax year, then you need to declare your eligibility again and confirm that you haven't paid into another ISA of the same type in the current tax year. You will not be able to make any further deposits into your ISA until a new declaration is made.

If you have Triodos Internet Banking, you can complete a new declaration online. To do this, please log into internet banking and select 'Account Management, ISA Declaration Management', from the menu.

Alternatively you can download, print and complete a declaration form below, or you can contact us and we can post a declaration form to you.

Junior ISAs and Fixed Rate Cash ISAs do not need a new declaration to be made after the account is opened.

Each child can have one Junior cash ISA and one Junior stocks and shares ISA at any one time. These can be with different providers.

A child cannot hold both a Junior ISA and a Child Trust Fund, with the same or different providers.

Bank impersonation fraud is when a fraudster impersonates someone from the bank in order to trick a victim into making payments to a fraudulent account.

What a fraudster might do:

• A fraudster usually calls their victim, though may use email or another contact method. It’s likely they already know information about the victim, including their name and who they bank with.
• While impersonating the bank staff member, the fraudster might tell the victim their account is under threat and they need to make payments to a “safe account” or set up payments in order to “block the funds”.
• The fraudster might ask for details from the Digipass so they can access the account and make payments to the fraudulent account themselves.
• The fraudster might ask the victim to download screen sharing software so they can view or control the victim’s computer. This can make it easier to take control of the account.
• In any scenario, the fraudster will foster a feeling of panic in order to get the victim to comply with their requests as quickly as possible.
• Fraudsters might also impersonate other well-known, trusted companies such as Microsoft, Apple, BT or HMRC.

What Triodos Bank will never do

• We’ll never call you to tell you to log into internet banking or to make a payment to a “safe account”. If we believe your account to be under threat, we can block the account ourselves and do not need you to do anything from your end.
• We’ll never ask you for your full Digipass number or your Digipass PIN.
• We’ll never ask you to download any software onto your PC or mobile phone.

What you can do to protect yourself

• Never give out your personal details to someone who has called you unexpectedly.
• Never download any software onto your PC or mobile phone when asked by someone over the phone or by email – even if you think you are speaking to a trusted organisation.
• Never give anyone your Digipass number or your Digipass PIN. Triodos will never ask for this information.
• Do not let someone else use your Digipass – even a colleague or family member. Your Digipass is assigned to you as an individual and must only be used by yourself. If you leave your place of work, please let us know and we can arrange for your Digipass to be cancelled.
• If you are unsure about someone who has called you claiming to be from the bank or another company, hang up and call back on the company’s published telephone number.