Your bank has shut you down. Here is how to get trading again
Being de-banked is happening to ordinary lawful businesses, often with no explanation. This page gives you the rights you already have, the file that gets you accepted next time, and the banks and regulated providers that publish your sort of business as welcome.
- 1Get the decision, the reason and your money in writing
- 2Fix what triggered it
- 3Build the source of funds file
- 4Apply where your trade is published as accepted
- 5Complain in parallel, because closures do get reversed
Usual notice you are owed
2 months
90 days under UK rules from April 2026
Cost of an Ombudsman complaint
£0
Free to you, and it can order compensation
Providers listed here
20
Licensed banks and regulated payment firms
First, the rights you already have
Why it happened, and what to fix
Most closures are not an accusation. They are a risk decision, and roughly half of them come down to paperwork that no longer matches reality.
Risk appetite changed for your whole sector
Fix: Nothing you did. Move to a provider that publishes your sector as accepted, rather than reapplying to the same type of bank.
Crypto, gambling, adult, cannabis or arms length high risk trades
Fix: Go to providers licensed for that trade and expect source of funds and licensing questions from the start.
Regular payments from a high risk country
Fix: Keep contracts, invoices and shipping or delivery evidence for every corridor, and show the commercial reason for the route.
A sanctions or politically exposed person name match
Fix: Provide identity documents with date and place of birth to break a false match, and say plainly it is a name similarity.
Your registered trade code does not match what you actually do
Fix: Correct the code at Companies House and put your real trade in writing with an example invoice.
Cash heavy takings or unexplained large deposits
Fix: Build a source of funds file that traces the money to its origin, with dates and documents.
Paperwork gone stale: expired ID, unverified directors, an out of date address
Fix: Refresh everything before applying anywhere. Half of refusals are paperwork, not suspicion.
Company address is a mail forwarding box only
Fix: Use an address where post is genuinely received and where someone can be reached.
A confusing ownership chain across several countries
Fix: Draw a one page ownership chart down to the real people, with percentages. Banks reject what they cannot follow.
Where people are actually welcomed
Each of these publishes who it serves. Nobody can promise you will be accepted, and anyone who does is selling you something. Apply where your trade and your country are on the accepted list, and go in with the file below.
Your source of funds file
Put these in one folder before you apply anywhere. Applications with this file attached get through far more often than applications without it.
- Two years of accounts or, for a new business, signed contracts and your first invoices
- Bank statements showing the money arriving from named customers
- A one page ownership chart down to the real people, with percentages
- Photo identity and proof of address for every owner over 25 percent and every director
- Proof of the business address where post is genuinely received
- Your correct trade code, matching what you actually sell
- Any licence your trade needs, such as gambling, money transmission, alcohol or care
- A short plain paragraph naming your customers, your suppliers and the countries money moves between
- For a windfall or a sale, the completion statement or sale agreement that created the money
Your complaint and appeal letter
Send this to the bank in writing, keep a copy, and diarise eight weeks for the Ombudsman.
- Your name, the account numbers and the date you were told about the closure or refusal.
- A plain request: the reason for the decision, the notice period, and the name of the internal review team.
- A statement that you rely on this account to run a lawful business, and the harm the closure causes, with dates.
- Anything factually wrong that you can correct, such as a mistaken name match or an out of date trade code.
- A list of the documents you are attaching, from the source of funds list.
- A request for the decision to be reconsidered within 15 working days, and confirmation that you will take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service if the answer does not resolve it.
- Never threaten and never exaggerate. A calm, evidenced letter is reversed far more often than an angry one.
The rules that always apply
- Everything you tell a bank must be true. A false address, a nominee owner or a hidden controller is a criminal offence, not a workaround.
- Opening an account abroad does not change where you pay tax. Your home country still taxes the income and the account is reported back automatically.
- Declare foreign accounts where your country requires it, such as the US FBAR and Form 8938.
- If your trade needs a licence, get the licence. No bank will keep an unlicensed regulated business.
- Keep one clean provider for payroll and tax payments even while you rebuild the rest.