When you add money to your Tembo account as a one-off contribution or direct debit, your funds will be held by GoCardless in a designated bank-level secure account for our client funds for up to 1 business day prior to transferring into the accounts we hold.
Once the funds have been transferred to us from GoCardless, they will land in secure accounts we use for our client funds with our partner banks - Barclays and Bank of Scotland (and Aldermore Bank and Shawbrook Bank, effective from 31st March 2025).
The reason we hold customer funds with partner banks is due to strict rules prescribed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This ensures customer funds are separate from our funds and ring-fenced - so we cannot use them for any purpose whatsoever. This means that if Tembo were to cease operating, your funds are protected and Tembo would not be allowed to access them to support any ongoing activities.
Each of these partner banks is also FSCS-protected, which means that if one of these banks were to go into default, your money would be protected up to £85,000 per eligible person, per bank. By partnering with more than one bank, we aim to diversify and help manage your risk so you can benefit from over £200,000 in FSCS-protection spread across the banks we work with!