ClearBank: institutional accounts, embedded banking and payment infrastructure

ClearBank supplies bank accounts, clearing connectivity and embedded banking infrastructure to financial institutions and platforms. Its brokerage relevance includes operational cash, segregated client-money structures, collection and payout services, and banking products embedded inside a wealth or fintech application. The account designation determines the function: an operating account, a safeguarding account and an end-user savings deposit are distinct arrangements.[1]

Embedded Banking divides responsibilities between the platform and ClearBank. The platform designs the journey, onboards customers and performs ongoing monitoring within the bank’s framework. ClearBank sets minimum due-diligence standards and retains ultimate banking accountability. Service or hub accounts can have restricted flows and are not interchangeable with full payment accounts. This is a product partnership with defined duties for both parties.[3]

The UK developer portal describes a JSON REST API across accounts, clearing and embedded banking, with asynchronous notifications. It is available to customers that have completed ClearBank onboarding. Integration includes account management, payments and reporting; its documented route to production proceeds through simulation testing and ClearBank’s own integration QA.[12]

Production authentication requires protected keys, a digital certificate and an API token. The UK guide specifies a FIPS 140-2 Level 2 compliant hardware security module for production key operations. Requests with a body carry a digital signature; request identifiers support duplicate detection. The design therefore needs key management and renewal, not only an API credential stored in the application.[13]

ClearBank’s webhooks can arrive out of order and more than once. Handlers should deduplicate the payload: the nonce and delivery-attempt metadata are not reliable duplicate identifiers. Preserve the signed event and reconcile the resulting account state so a repeated transaction notification cannot credit a customer balance twice.[13]

Multi-currency reporting exposes transactions for a real account and its virtual accounts, or an individual virtual account, alongside statements. The documented list endpoint defaults to the last 24 hours when dates are omitted and paginates results. A daily reconciliation process must set its own period and retrieve all pages; a successful default response is not necessarily the complete accounting period.[14]

The current UK Client Terms bundle is dated 16 June 2026. Its core terms put service charges in the negotiated Commercial Terms and any relevant service schedule. They also describe minimum-balance requirements, deduction of charges from operational funds and monthly invoicing through the portal. The reviewed public material does not provide a general numerical banking tariff.[21]

Savings interest is configured separately from provider fees. The developer documentation supports agreed configurations, future rate changes and different balance-tier methods. Its illustrated membership fees and interest percentages are examples, not a ClearBank commercial offer. Partners need the actual configuration identifiers and agreed interest treatment for the product they intend to distribute.[17]

ClearBank’s public API page describes an Azure-hosted platform, active-active operation and a simulation environment. Those architecture statements support an integration-planning discussion, but do not establish a customer-specific recovery objective or contractual availability guarantee. The simulation stage should exercise the business flow and exception handling before ClearBank approves production use.[20]

Savings products require an existing customer record, an agreed interest configuration and a nominated account. The documentation assigns name matching between savings and nominated accounts to the partner. It permits funding and withdrawals via Faster Payments or CHAPS, while excluding Bacs from savings accounts. These restrictions should be visible in the product’s funding options and reconciliation rules.[15]

Cash ISAs have separate creation, funding, transfer and closure endpoints. A closure cannot proceed with a remaining balance, and accrued interest must be dealt with before completion. Treat a formal ISA transfer as a distinct workflow rather than an ordinary withdrawal if the customer is moving the tax-wrapped account to another provider.[16]

The public Know Your Business documentation explicitly marks its automated UK limited-company service as coming soon and not yet live in production. It provides simulation behaviour for successful, declined and additional-information responses. The endpoint is advance integration material and is unavailable for production use today.[18]

The public UK complaints process aims to resolve an issue within three business days, ordinarily provides a final response within 15 working days and allows 35 business days in exceptional circumstances, with weekly progress updates. Ombudsman escalation is conditional on eligibility. These published complaint periods do not specify the response time for a failed live payment or production API incident.[23]

For UK accounts, eligible deposits are normally protected up to £120,000 per depositor across the same banking licence. ClearBank’s explanation aggregates direct balances and qualifying intermediary arrangements. A customer using several branded apps can therefore share one limit. Safeguarded or trust arrangements depend on the underlying beneficiary’s eligibility and the precise account structure; every balance displayed by a platform is not automatically covered.[28]

The PRA exclusions specifically include deposits belonging to financial institutions, investment firms and other listed financial businesses, with an exception for eligible underlying beneficiaries. A broker should distinguish its own operating balance from eligible customer funds held through a qualifying arrangement. ClearBank’s banking status does not itself establish protection for the broker’s corporate deposit.[29]

The Dutch scheme separately protects eligible deposits up to €100,000 per person, per bank. DNB excludes financial firms and government bodies and distinguishes deposits from investments and crypto-assets. The scheme for ClearBank Europe must be assessed independently of the UK FSCS limit. Neither limit should be applied to an e-money token while it is held as a crypto-asset.[27]

ClearBank announced on 9 April 2026 that ClearBank Europe had completed MiCAR notification and received AFM confirmation for crypto-asset services. This is attributed to the bank’s announcement; the directly matched DNB and PRA records in this review concern banking. The European execution policy limits its EMT service to regulated business clients and their explicit orders.[8][10]

ClearBank says its UK clearing-bank launch took place in 2017. Its published company information identifies London and Amsterdam offices. The group combines banking operations with its own technology platform; the existence of a common brand should not obscure the location of the bank holding a particular account.[30]

The legal disclosures identify ClearBank Limited, UK company 09736376; ClearBank Europe N.V., Dutch registration 89463366; and ClearBank Group Holdings Limited, UK company 14254435. The holding company is the parent; the UK or European bank supplies the relevant account. Contracts and account records should identify that operating bank.[31]

Operator

ClearBank Limited and ClearBank Europe N.V., within ClearBank Group Holdings Limited.

Service scope

Institutional banking, segregated and safeguarding accounts, clearing APIs, embedded banking, payment FX and European institutional EMT services.

Customer types

Banks; Brokerages; Investment firms; Payment institutions; Electronic money institutions; Fintechs; Wealth platforms; Corporate platforms

Delivery

API; SaaS

Pricing publication

Quote only

Platforms

ClearBank API; ClearBank Portal; Agency Banking; Embedded Banking; Transaction Banking; Digital Asset Rails; EMT Minting & Redemption Service

Integrations

JSON REST API; Signed webhooks; Faster Payments; Bacs; CHAPS; SEPA Credit Transfer; SEPA Instant; T2; Confirmation of Payee; Verification of Payee; Circle EMT services

Pricing scope

Banking charges follow commercial schedules; European EMT disclosure lists fee categories and specific zero-fee treatment but no universal tariff.

Implementation

Customer onboarding, protected key infrastructure, simulation testing, ClearBank QA and production promotion; product-specific account and reconciliation flows.

Support

Relationship-led onboarding and product enablement, public developer documentation, scoped enquiry addresses and a separate complaints process.

Permissions and regulatory scope

PRA UK-bank match for ClearBank Limited and DNB R193714 for ClearBank Europe. Deposit protection is conditional; European MiCAR notification is attributed to the bank’s published announcement.

Provider metadata checked 21 Oct 2026Source 1Source 2Source 3Source 4Source 5Source 7Source 8Source 9Source 10Source 12Source 13Source 14Source 15Source 16Source 21Source 22Source 23Source 24Source 25Source 27Source 28Source 29Source 30Source 31

Digital Asset Rails was announced live on 28 May 2026 for EURC-based transfers and European fiat payouts. That announcement placed USDC later in the rollout and qualified continuous processing with business-hours exception handling. Current EMT execution documents now cover both EURC and USDC. The public pages establish broader policy scope than the original launch, while leaving customer-specific token and corridor enablement to the agreement.[7][10]

The EMT operating chain assigns issuance and redemption to Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. ClearBank Europe handles its own onboarding, orders, transfers and compliance; external infrastructure also affects execution. Its risk disclosure describes a non-custodial service and no dedicated insurance compensating clients for crypto-asset losses. A bank deposit and a token in this workflow should therefore remain separate balances in the platform’s explanations and records.[11]

For fiat FX, the product page distinguishes continuous streaming prices from a firm quote held for up to 45 seconds. It also describes different value dates depending on pair and use case. A quoted conversion rate, execution and beneficiary payment arrival are separate events.[5]

The CHAPS documentation identifies an upcoming integration change: version 3 of inbound simulation endpoints is available, with older versions marked for retirement on 13 November 2026. It also explains that held inbound transactions remain in suspense until a decision, with a settled event after release. Testing should include that held-funds path as well as the simulator migration.[19]