Security of a club's bank account

I belong to an amateur radio club, which has a bank account. At any one tim e the amount of money in that account is likely to be around £1500. Two o f three people are required to sign any cheque (treasurer, chairman or secr etary). This makes it impossible for one person to steal money by writing a cheque.

But the treasurer has access to the bank account via the internet, which cr eates a loophole in the system, allowing one person to transfer all the clu b's money to any account they wish.

How is it possible to reduce the chances of money disappearing from an acco unt by one person taking it all via the internet? Banks are of course pushi ng for more and more to be done online via the internet, and it is very con venient. Are there any similar mechanisms that exist that would allow money to be transferred if two people authorize the transfer electronically?

I am sure big companies with multi-million pound bank accounts must hit thi s problem.

Dave

Reply to
drkirkby
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Have somebody who can be trusted as treasurer, if the current one can't be. Or accept that that's a risk and come up with a plan that involves discharging large capacitors into his unmentionables if he does rip you off.

Risk assessments aren't only about removing risks. As long as you know and recognise that they're there, that's fine - if you think it's an acceptable risk.

Reply to
Adrian

Thank you for the answer, although "having someone who can be trusted" is n ot really a very useful solution.

I have every trust in the current treasurer, who has done the job well for years, but realistically the treasurer is not going to remain in the role f orever. No club would elect a treasurer they did not trust, but that risk a lways remains, and I'm asking if there's a way to limit the risk.

Dave

Reply to
Dr. David Kirkby

There are two other alternatives.

The first is to find a bank with two-factor authentication for the online banking, to give the treasurer one factor (the password) and one of the other two the second factor (the key generator wotsit), and have them liase by phone every time internet access is needed. Of course, that doesn't help much with the two-out-of-three requirement, and may well cause all sorts of logistical issues.

The other alternative is not to use internet banking.

Have you considered that two of the three may be in cahoots to defraud the club and split the proceeds...?

Reply to
Adrian

Since it's a club, the account will probably be classed as a business account rather than a personal account - e.g. Lloyds Bank Treasurers Account. Most banks can now provide a mechanism for such accounts whereby one person initiates a payment and someone else needs to authorise it. Lloyds probably offer this facility, and Barclays (ugh!) certainly do.

Speak to the bank to find out what they offer.

Reply to
Roger Mills

You will probably find that _no-one_ at a bank will look at the signature on the cheque before paying out the money, unless it is a silly high amount. The double signature may give the club a warm fuzzy feeling of security but in reality it is not secure and will not prevent theft by a single person in possession of the cheque book.

The point of having more than one person in charge of the money is that they can check each others actions. A single person cannot hide the loss of money.

Reply to
alan_m

It's really not that complicated. We have a Lloyds "Clubs and Charities Treasurer" account. Any one of our three signatories can initiate an online payment but that has to be approved before it's actioned. One of the other two (or both if you prefer) then log on and confirm the pending payment.

The Lloyds system doesn't notify the others automatically that action is required so you have to call or email each other.

Reply to
Reentrant

ps There's an online demo at

- see Online Payment then "make a payment" and "authorise a payment".

Reply to
Reentrant

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