Your business bank account has stopped working for you. Perhaps fees have risen, the app feels outdated, or your nearest branch has just closed. Now you face a real decision: let your new bank handle everything through the Current Account Switch Service, or manage the move yourself. Which route works best depends on which banks are involved, how much control you want, and whether your new provider even takes part in the official switching scheme.
Switching with the Current Account Switch Service (CASS)
The Current Account Switch Service, known as CASS, has run since 2013 under Pay.UK and covers almost every major UK bank for personal and business accounts alike. Over fifty banks and building societies now take part, including Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, Bank of Scotland and Monzo Business, which offers a full CASS switch for its business customers.
Your business qualifies for CASS if your annual turnover does not exceed £6.5 million and you employ fewer than 50 people. Charities and trusts under the same financial threshold can use it too. Both your old and new bank must be signed up to the scheme for the process to work.
Once you agree a switch date, CASS moves your payments, direct debits and standing orders, redirects incoming money to your new account, completes everything within seven working days, and comes with a guarantee if anything goes wrong. For at least 36 months afterwards, any payment sent to your old sort code and account number gets redirected automatically, so a client who still has your old details on file will not cause a problem.
You will still need to sign a Current Account Switch Agreement and a Current Account Closure Instruction, alongside the usual new account application form. If your new bank application fails its checks, or your account type turns out to be ineligible, the switch simply does not happen and your old account stays open with nothing changed.
Switching without CASS: the manual route
Some providers sit outside CASS altogether. Revolut Business and Wise Business both require a manual switch rather than the official scheme, and Mettle customers also open their new account online but move payments across by hand. If either your old or new bank is not a CASS participant, you lose the automated process entirely.
A manual switch is essentially a do-it-yourself job: open the new account, gradually move your transactions across, then close the old one. You will need to contact each supplier, client and payment provider individually to update your bank details, which takes longer than ticking a box on a switch form.
Timing becomes harder to predict too. Your new account might open within a day or take a couple of weeks, and the date you close the old one is entirely your call.
The manual route means more work for you and no guarantee scheme to fall back on if a payment goes astray. It does have one practical advantage though: if you hold EUR or USD accounts alongside sterling, you will need a manual approach for those anyway, since CASS only covers sterling current accounts.
Who each option suits
CASS suits sole traders, partnerships and limited companies that sit comfortably under the turnover and headcount limits and want minimal admin. It works best when you are moving between established, CASS-registered names such as Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, Bank of Scotland, Metro Bank or Monzo Business. If speed and a guaranteed deadline matter most, this is the route to pick.
The manual route suits businesses moving to newer providers that sit outside the scheme, including Revolut Business, Wise Business and Mettle. It also suits companies above the CASS thresholds, or any business running euro or dollar accounts that need separate handling anyway. Expect more admin, but also more control over timing.
London adds its own pressure to this decision. Which? research found more than 6,000 British high-street bank branches have closed in the past decade, with over 1,400 of those belonging to the NatWest group alone. Lloyds closed its branch on The Broadway in Ealing (W5 5JU) in March, part of a wider pattern of closures across the capital that has pushed many business owners toward app-based banking before they even weigh up CASS against a manual switch.
The deciding factor is simple: check whether both your current bank and your chosen new bank take part in CASS. If they both do, start your application online and pick a switch date at least seven working days ahead, then let the bank handle the rest. If either one sits outside the scheme, request a list of your direct debits and standing orders from your old bank first, then build a two to four week handover before you close anything.
