1. Bank account process

1.1 Why and when we need bank details

Checking bank information forms part of our fraud and governance checks to ensure that public funding is distributed appropriately. Without this information passing our requirements we will be unable to release any payments.

We will ask for this information once we have sent you an offer of grant although you may create a bank record and submit evidence at any time.

You or your organisation must hold an eligible bank account before you submit a grant application; but you do not need to provide the details prior to applying.

1.2 When we check bank evidence

If you are awarded funding, once you accept the award, we will check that your bank record meets our criteria. Any issues arising from us not being able to validate your account may cause significant delays to your payments and may even mean that we withdraw our offer of grant. To avoid any issues please ensure appropriate evidence has been provided.

1.3 After we have checked bank evidence

Once your account has been validated it will show as Validated ‘Yes’ in the portal (see list of bank records at Admin – Bank Details). Once validated, your record remains authorised for two years, the expiry date of the validation will be shown alongside.

If there are any issues in validating your account details, we will get back in touch with you. We may ask you to refer back to this guidance and provide some additional evidence.

2. Bank evidence requirements

2.1 Organisations

2.1.1 Bank account evidence requirements

Statutory Bodies
Statutory bodies (such as local authorities, local authority run schools, town councils, health boards, or universities) will not need to provide evidence for your bank accounts. In these cases, the account details provided must be in the organisation name or that of its local authority.

However, if we award any funding, we will need to know which bank account you would like us to pay into, so you will need to have created a bank record our system, it’s just that we will need not need to see any bank evidence.

Non-Statutory Bodies
For us to be able to validate your bank record, we will need your evidence to show:

• the account is in your organisation's name or its legal name
• at least two people have access to the account
• the account number
• the sort code

This evidence will need to:

• be less than 6 months old from the date we review the bank record
• match the account details you have entered on our system
• be official bank evidence (i.e. created and completed by your bank)

You or your organisation must hold an eligible bank account before you submit a grant application; but you do not need to provide the details prior to applying.

 

2.1.2 Types of bank evidence

You will need to upload the evidence at the time of entering the bank account details, so please ensure you have the documentation ready. It is important that the bank evidence uploaded matches the bank details you have provided.

Evidence must be clearly linked to the account details. You may need to provide several documents, for example:

• A dated letter or email which clearly demonstrates that it has been sent by your bank and contains details confirming the information required.
• Screenshots of signatories logged in to online banking displaying their name along with the bank account information for the organisation, which is dated.
• Photographs of each bank card for the account that show the names of each signatory, the account name, account number and sort code (some bank cards don’t show all this information so if this is the case, you’ll need to provide some additional information that links your organisation and the account details, for example a bank statement)

We can accept bank evidence attachments in the following formats - up to 10mb each:

• PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and jpeg

Here are some examples of file formats that we cannot accept:

• HEIC, Pages, CSV, RAW and DAT

Please note: We cannot accept building society accounts that operate with a passbook only.

If you have any questions regarding bank evidence requirements, please email us at investmentandfunding@arts.wales.

2.2 Individuals

2.2.1 Bank account evidence requirements

For us to be able to validate your bank record, we will need your evidence to show:

• the account is in your legal name
• the account number
• the sort code
• the address of the bank account holder (this must match the address you have registered with on our online grants system and must also be in Wales).

This evidence will need to:

• be less than 6 months old from the date we review the bank record
• match the account details you have entered on our system
• be official bank evidence (i.e. created and completed by your bank)

You must have an appropriate bank account with the required evidence before you submit an application.

2.2.2 Types of bank evidence

You will need to upload the evidence at the time of entering the bank account details, so please ensure you have the documentation ready. It is important that the bank evidence uploaded matches the bank details you have provided.

Evidence must be clearly linked to the account details. You may need to provide several documents, for example:

• The first page of a bank statement (this will usually provide the details required and can usually be downloaded from online banking).
• A dated letter or email which clearly demonstrates that it has been sent by your bank and contains details confirming the information required.
• Screenshots of you logged in to your online banking showing your name, address and your bank account information which is dated.
• Photographs of the bank card for the account that show the account name, number and sort code. You will need to provide additional evidence for the address which links to the evidence. (If your name is not evidenced on the card then additional information will need to be provided, linking you to the account details).

We can accept bank evidence attachments in the following formats - up to 10mb each:

• PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and jpeg

Here are some examples of file formats that we cannot accept:

• HEIC, Pages, CSV, RAW and DAT

Please note:

• We cannot accept joint accounts.
• We cannot accept building society accounts that operate with a passbook only.
• We cannot make payments into ISA accounts.
• We cannot accept cheque books as bank evidence.

Business Accounts:

• We are only able to accept business accounts where your legal name is included within the account name, for example ‘Fred Jones Dance’.
• We are unable to accept bank accounts which are for limited companies.
• Business accounts can only be accepted when accompanied by an email from the applicant confirming that they are the only signatory.

If you have any questions regarding bank evidence requirements, please email us at investmentandfunding@arts.wales.

3 How to:

3.1 Create a bank record

Within your online account on our grant portal you can enter your bank details and provide evidence of your bank account.

Once you have suitable bank evidence ready to upload:

• Navigate to Admin – Bank Details on our grants portal
• Complete the Enter New Bank Details section and press submit.
• Upload supporting evidence; this cannot be uploaded on the portal at a later date. To avoid delays later in the process, please ensure your evidence meets our requirements. It is important that the bank evidence uploaded matches the bank details you have provided.

You can add multiple bank accounts to your profile to allow different grants to be paid into alternative accounts. We will need to see bank evidence for each account that you add in order to validate the details and make payments to the account.

We would ask you not to create multiple records for the same account where possible. If you do this by accident, please just get in touch with us at investmentandfunding@arts.wales and we can de-activate any unwanted records for you.

3.2 Make changes or provide additional evidence

Once created, the portal will not allow you to edit or delete existing bank records or upload additional evidence.

If any of the following applies:

• Your bank records has expired and you wish to use the record for a new grant offer
• You need to supply additional evidence for a bank record that has been created
• You need to request a change to an existing bank record
• You wish to remove a bank record

Email us at investmentandfunding@arts.wales and let us know the related bank account reference on our system, i.e. BANK-123456

If your bank account details change during the delivery of your project, you must let us know.

• Please create the new bank record (if it doesn’t already exist on the system) and upload the relevant bank evidence.
• You will then need to get in touch with us as soon as possible so that we can move the relevant grant payments to your new bank record. Please provide the relevant reference number for the grants you wish to update along with our bank record reference: investmentandfundingservices@arts.wales

3.3 Accept a grant offer

3.3.1 Grant offer notification

If you are successful and awarded an offer of funding, the contacts you specified on application will receive an email with a summary of the funding.

Instructions on how to accept the award are detailed in the email and outlined below. The full details of the grant and conditions will be detailed on the portal where you will need to accept the award.

3.3.2 Check your bank record

You will need to ensure that the bank record you would like the funding paid into is displayed on your account on our grants portal in the list at Admin – Bank Details

• For help see: how to create a new bank record

To check whether the bank record you wish to use is ok, at the list of bank accounts on your grants portal at Admin – Bank Details check that for the bank record you wish to use:

1. Validated = yes
2. Expiry date is before the date you accept the offer.

• if it has been validated, and the expiry date is after the date you accept the offer then no further information will be required.
• if it has been validated, and the expiry date is before the date you accept the offer, you can still select it and accept the award, however please send us fresh evidence which meets our requirements along with the bank reference number: investmentandfunding@arts.wales. Please do not create a new bank record with the same account details.
• if the bank record has not been validated, you can still select this bank record at acceptance, and we will assess your bank record and any evidence submitted after you have accepted the award.

3.3.3 Accepting

To accept the grant offer and select a bank record for an award to be paid into:

• Log into our grants portal, please click here to log in.
• Go to ‘Grants – Submitted Applications’
• Select the relevant record from the assessed applications grid
• Selecting the grant will show the details of your grant application.
• On this page scroll down and select continue to decision.
• Here you can view the details of our offer including the payments and any additional conditions on your grant.
• Select ‘Next’ to navigate to the terms and conditions and acceptance page
• Select the bank record you want the grant to be paid into using the bank details lookup tool.
• Once you have selected a bank record for payment and read the offer of grant and related conditions, you may accept the award using the button at the bottom of the page.

After you have accepted the award, we will review your bank record. Any issues arising from our review may cause significant delays to your payments and may even mean that we withdraw our offer of grant.