The Government Banking Service was established in April 2008 and is the banking shared service provider to government and the wider public sector. It is part of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and incorporates the Office of HM Paymaster General (OPG) who had provided banking services to the public sector since 1836.
We are responsible for holding the working balances of Government Departments and other public bodies in high-level accounts at the Bank of England. These working balances are made available overnight to the National Loans Fund (NLF) to reduce the government’s borrowing costs. We currently have around 700 customers including Government Departments, Executive Agencies, Trading Funds, Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and National Health Service (NHS) bodies.
We provide a range of banking services, including all three of the UK clearing systems:
Additional banking services we provide are:
We have recently changed our main provider of banking transaction services from the Bank of England to Citigroup (Citi) and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBSG).
Customers will now have direct access to new bank accounts at Citi and at RBSG and will deal directly with the banks for all payment transactions through their internet banking facilities, branches and service desks.
