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04/12/2025

CAF Bank service update

04/12/2025

 

CAF Bank service update 

As the end of the year approaches, we recognise this is a busy period for many customers. This bulletin shares tips to ensure payments are processed smoothly, and provides details of our Christmas and New Year opening hours and payment cut-off times.

We also explain changes to the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). These took effect on 1 December 2025 and provide increased protection for eligible deposits.

Guided by customer feedback, we continue to work with our partners to enhance our services for you. If you are a Xero user, we explain how you can add your voice to encourage Xero to deliver a bank feed for CAF Bank customers.

If you are an Account Contact, you may have received an email from us this week inviting you to share your experiences of banking with us. This online survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Your feedback will really help us improve our support.

Next week is Charity Fraud Awareness Week (8 - 12 December). It’s a timely reminder of the growing risk of fraud and scams, and what you can do to protect your organisation's funds and reputation. Do take advantage of the free resources and live webinars

Please do share this bulletin with any colleagues who may find the information useful.


Good news: more of your money is now protected

On 1 December 2025, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) increased the protection limit on eligible deposits from £85,000 to £120,000.

This means your eligible deposits with CAF Bank are now protected up to £120,000. The new limit also applies to the eligible deposits that you may hold with any other UK-authorised bank, building society or credit union.

The increase in protection helps ensure that your reserves, operating balances and project funds are better shielded, giving you more confidence to focus on your mission.

There’s no need to take any action – the change has been automatically made for you. For more information about this deposit guarantee scheme, visit our FCSC protection page.

Making payments

We’re approaching a busy payment processing period for many of our customers. Here are some tips to help avoid interruptions to your online payments:

1. Check your beneficiaries – Make sure that all beneficiaries you intend to pay are available in online banking. Don’t remove a beneficiary until after all one-off or recurring payments (e.g. standing orders) to that beneficiary have fully completed.

2. Check payment approvers – Dual authorisation is required for all external payments. Make sure your payment approvers have online banking access and are set up to authorise payments, by checking that your approval matrix is up-to-date.

3. Check available funds – Please make sure there will be sufficient funds in your account when the payment is due to be debited; otherwise, the payment may not be completed. For pre-authorised payments, make sure you deposit any funds needed to top up your account balance by the end of the previous working day.

If you need help to set up payments this month, please get in touch as soon as you can. Call wait times when contacting us are likely to be longer in the weeks of the bank holidays. 

Are you waiting for Xero to be connected? 

We’re ready and able to support the onboarding of automatically linked accounting systems through industry standard Third-Party Providers, such as Xero.

For this to happen, the Third-Party Provider needs to decide if they want to connect based on demand. We’re in touch with Xero, to make them aware of our customers’ interest; adding your voice directly can make a big difference.

If you have a Xero account, please log into your Xero account and visit this petition page to cast your vote. Leaving a comment to highlight the importance of this connection for you will help demonstrate demand to Xero’s Product Team.

If you are considering Xero, you can cast a vote by signing up for a free Xero trial. Once you have registered, please follow the instructions above.

Thank you for your support.

Fraud: the first line of defence 

Fraud is a growing risk for charities of all sizes. You are your organisation’s first line of defence to protect its hard-earned funds and reputation from criminals.

Next week is Charity Fraud Awareness Week (8 – 12 December 2025). This year’s campaign, organised by the Fraud Advisory Panel, offers you the opportunity to:

  • Understand what actions to take to reduce the risk of being impacted by fraud
  • Learn how to build a fraud-aware culture within your organisation
  • Explore good practice resources and register to attend live webinars.

Follow us on LinkedIn, where we’ll be posting fraud prevention tips next week. Our security centre highlights common types of scams, how to protect yourself, and report suspected fraud.

  

Changing your phone number 

If you change your phone number, we recommend registering a UK mobile number (country prefix: +44) to ensure unrestricted access to our services. For instance, Business card cardholders using an international number may experience difficulties completing card transactions that need One Time Passcode verification.

To update your phone number, select the ‘Profile Icon’ in the top right corner of the online banking screen and choose ‘Profile Settings.’ Here, you can review and edit your phone number, email address, postal address, username and password.

Please note: If you are the Account Contact, you will also need to complete a Change of Account Details Form and must provide a UK phone number to proceed.

Christmas and New Year hours 

We are open as usual during the festive season, except on the bank holidays:

  • Closed: 25–26 December 2025 and 1 January 2026
  • Early closing: 1pm on Christmas Eve (24 December) and New Year’s Eve (31 December

Payment cut-off times – Online payments which need to reach a beneficiary before:

  • Christmas Day must be set up and authorised by 12pm on 24 December 2025
  • New Year must be set up and authorised by 12pm on 31 December 2025

These are the very latest cut-off times and might not reach the beneficiary until the close of business the next working day. To guarantee that payments arrive before the bank holidays, we recommend they are sent by 4pm on 23 and 30 December 2025, respectively.

Our contact details

If you have any questions or concerns, please use our contact form. You can also call 03000 123 456. We’re open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding English bank holidays).

CAF Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number: 204451).

CAF Bank Limited Registered office is 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ. Registered in England and Wales under number 1837656.