Birmingham Bank

Birmingham Bank is a UK savings bank that you run through an online platform rather than a branch. It says you can apply in minutes and then manage your savings online¹. It also trades under the names HTA Savings and Loans and FMB Bank, which are trading names of the same firm rather than separate banks².

Deposits with Birmingham Bank are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £120,000 per person, per authorised firm, or £120,000 each for joint account holders³. The bank says deposits of up to £120,000 have been protected under the scheme since 1 December 2025¹.

Its staffed office hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and it is closed at weekends and on bank holidays¹. Complaints go to complaints@birminghambank.com, and the bank says its complaints team responds within 48 hours¹.

What Birmingham Bank offers: savings and lending

Birmingham Bank's main consumer business is savings. It describes applying in minutes and managing your savings through its online platform¹. The bank's permissions on the Financial Services Register cover accepting deposits and entering into regulated credit agreements as lender, excluding high-cost short-term credit, bill of sale agreements and home collected credit². In plain terms, it can take deposits and make some loans, but it is not a payday lender.

The savings market it sits in is broad. If you are weighing up where to put money, the savings accounts guide sets out the main types, and the ISAs guide covers tax-free accounts. Cash held in a bank account is a deposit, not an investment, which is why it falls under the FSCS rather than an investment protection scheme.

For borrowing, the loans guide explains how personal loans work and what lenders look at. Birmingham Bank's register permissions allow it to lend, but the products it sells to consumers are savings-led, and its own site is the place to check what is currently open.

One practical point about savings accounts generally: the interest you earn is taxable in some circumstances, and the tax guide explains the allowances that apply. None of this changes what Birmingham Bank offers, but it affects what a saver keeps.

Managing your savings through the online platform

Birmingham Bank is built around an online platform rather than branches. You apply and then manage the account through the platform¹. That model is now common: with most banks you can use online banking to check your balance at any time of day or night, check statements, transfer money between your accounts, send money to people you know, and set up or cancel direct debits and standing orders⁴.

If you are new to managing money online, Age UK publishes guidance on online banking for older users, and Scope covers accessible banking and financial services for disabled customers⁵. Both are worth reading before you commit if you have concerns about using an app or website as your only route to your money.

How to apply for a Birmingham Bank account

Birmingham Bank says you can apply in minutes and then manage your savings through its online platform¹. The general pattern for opening a UK bank account is to complete an application form online, in person or by phone, and to provide proof of identity including your full name, date of birth and address⁷.

For joint accounts, all account holders must each send their own identification documents, and documents addressed jointly or individually are accepted⁹. That is a common requirement and it is worth having documents ready for every named holder before you start, because an application stalls if one person's ID is missing.

If you are opening an account because you have been turned down elsewhere, a basic bank account may be the route. These often require you to apply for one of the bank's other accounts first, such as a standard current account, and can usually be applied for online, by phone or in a branch¹⁰. The current accounts guide explains how these work and who they suit.

If you are tracing an old account rather than opening a new one, the My Lost Account service lets you search for forgotten accounts, and Birmingham Midshires, a separate savings brand, points customers to it for tracing¹¹.

HTA Savings and Loans and FMB Bank are part of Birmingham Bank

HTA Savings and Loans and FMB Bank are current trading names of Birmingham Bank². That means money you hold under any of those names is money with the same firm, and it counts towards one protection limit rather than several.

This is a common structure in UK banking, and it catches savers out. Accounts with banks in the same banking group that share a banking licence are treated as one bank, with the £120,000 limit applying across all accounts¹². The FSCS puts it plainly: money held in multiple accounts with multiple banks that are part of the same banking group and share a banking licence is treated as one bank, so they share protection limits across all the accounts in that group rather than having separate limits for each bank¹³.

The firm behind Birmingham Bank has used several names over the years, including Bira Bank and the Hardware Federation Finance Company, and it traded as the National Federation of Retail Newsagents Bank and the British Agricultural & Garden Machinery Association Bank². It was incorporated on 24 September 1955 and remains an active company, number 00555071¹⁴.

Confirmation of Payee: how name checks protect your payments

Birmingham Bank uses a name-checking service called Confirmation of Payee to help protect against scams and reduce mistakes when making payments¹. The service checks whether the name of the account a payer is sending money to matches the name they have entered, and alerts the payer when there has not been a match¹⁵.

It works by checking the name and account type, such as personal or business, that you enter when setting up a new payee against the details registered with the bank receiving the money¹⁶. The purpose is to prevent certain types of scams and misdirected payments by confirming that the payee's account name matches the details the payer provided¹⁷. The checks are carried out securely, and the information shared is used solely to verify account details¹⁸.

The Payment Systems Regulator has described Confirmation of Payee as the name checking service designed to help prevent authorised push payment scams and misdirected payments¹⁹. The regulator has also pointed to additional interventions by payment firms to improve data sharing to spot and prevent scams, alongside the roll-out of the name-checking service²⁰.

If a payment does go to the wrong account, the scams and fraud guide explains what to do and how reimbursement works. The money transfers guide covers how payments move between accounts.

How to complain to Birmingham Bank

Birmingham Bank asks customers to email complaints@birminghambank.com, and says a member of its complaints team will review the concerns and respond within 48 hours of receiving the complaint¹. That 48-hour figure is the bank's own service target, not a regulatory deadline.

The regulatory backdrop is longer. Banks and building societies must investigate a complaint and give a clear answer within eight weeks¹¹. If a complaint is about anything other than a payment, the bank has eight weeks; if it is about a payment, it has 15 days to investigate and give a final response²¹. If the bank cannot deal with the complaint by the day after it receives it, it will contact you to let you know it is looking into it²³.

If you are unhappy with the final answer, the next step is the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use²⁴. The consumer protection guide explains how the ombudsman works and what it can award.

How your savings with Birmingham Bank are protected

Deposits with Birmingham Bank are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per person, per UK authorised firm, or £120,000 each for joint account holders³. The bank says deposits of up to £120,000 have been protected under the scheme since 1 December 2025¹.

The FSCS covers banks, building societies and credit unions¹². It is the scheme that steps in if a bank fails, and the Bank of England explains how it works²⁵. If you want to check how much of your money is protected across different accounts, the FSCS publishes a protection checker¹³.

Protection has limits worth knowing. It does not cover defined benefit pension schemes themselves, which are protected by the Pension Protection Fund instead²⁶. And where banks share a banking licence, the limit applies once across the group rather than once per brand¹². Some banks share protection in this way, which is why the brand name on your statement is not always the right unit for counting your protected money²⁷.

For comparison, money in NS&I British Savings Bonds is described as 100% secure and backed by HM Treasury, which is a different arrangement from FSCS protection²⁸.

Joint accounts and several accounts: how protection is shared

A joint account with Birmingham Bank gives each holder £120,000 of protection, so a two-person joint account has £240,000 of cover in total³. The FSCS protection tool assumes a joint account with two account holders, each with an equal share¹³.

Joint accounts come with a practical catch that has nothing to do with protection: both account holders can manage the account and withdraw cash, and either person can withdraw whatever money they want from it⁹. That is worth understanding before you open one. The joint accounts guidance from MoneyHelper covers how they work in more detail.

Separate accounts in the same banking group might be treated as being with the same bank, so the protected amount is only applied once³⁰.

Where to get free help

If you are struggling with debt rather than saving, free and impartial help is available. StepChange publishes guidance on joint debts and how they affect you, and on dealing with fraud²⁹. Citizens Advice covers complaints about banks and building societies, and what happens to an estate after a death in Scotland¹¹. The debt guide sets out the options and your rights.

If you are worried about a payment you have made, the scams and fraud guide explains the steps to take and how to report it. The banks directory lists UK banks and building societies if you want to compare what else is available.