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Financial regulation compliance

Protecting our customers and combating crime

Like all financial organisations, we're obliged by law to confirm the identity and address of every applicant. We do this to help prevent money laundering and to protect our customers from fraud.

These rules aren't just for new customers. Even if you've had an account with us for some time, we may still check your details when you open a new account.

How we check your information

To meet our legal requirements, we search credit reference and fraud prevention agency databases to check that the name and address details you supplied are correct. This will show as a search of the database but it is not a credit score, so it will not affect your credit rating.

In most cases this check lets us open your Birmingham Midshires account without the need for any paper based identification. If we need any further proof of identification, we'll let you know.

Gross is the contractual rate of interest payable before the deduction of income tax at the rate specified by law.

*AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate and illustrates what the interest rate would be if interest was paid and compounded once each year. As every advertisement for a savings product which quotes an interest rate will contain an AER, you will be able to compare more easily what return you can expect from your savings over time.

NET rates are illustrative only, allowing for the deduction of income tax at 20%. If you are a higher rate tax payer, you may have a further amount to pay. If we deduct more tax than you have to pay this can be reclaimed from HMRC.

Tax Free means free from personal liability to Income Tax.

For telephone line opening times, please read the information in our contact section. Calls may be monitored and recorded for security and training purposes. If you're calling from outside the UK, please dial +442920781145.

© Birmingham Midshires
This site is intended for UK residents unless otherwise stated.
Birmingham Midshires is a division of Bank of Scotland plc, which is authorised for accepting deposits by the Financial Services Authority. It is entered in the FSA's Register and its Register Number is 169628. Registered in Scotland No. SC327000. Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh, EH1 1YZ.
To contact the FSA Consumer helpline, please ring 0300 500 5000 or visit www.moneymadeclear.org.uk/.