What is an authorised signatory?

Jasmine Shillington Updated by Jasmine Shillington

An authorised signatory, is someone you allow to access and operate on your accounts on your behalf.

An authorised signatory:

  • will have access and control over the account, including a Visa Debit card when authorised by the you.
  • has access to your account/s through their own digital banking.
  • is responsible for any fees or charges incurred.
  • does not own the funds in the account and cannot claim them as personal assets.
  • can be held liable for unauthorised transactions or financial misconduct.

Subject to any contrary authority agreed by the account holder and the Bank, the third party signatory you authorise does NOT have authority to:

  • change any of the signatory authorisations on the account
  • give another third party access or authority to operate on the account
  • redeem Fixed Term Deposits
  • change contact details, including the mailing address for statements
  • open and close an account.

A parent/guardian acting as an authorised signatory for a child account may change the contact details and open an account on behalf of the child.

You are responsible for all transactions the authorised signatory carries out on your account. You can revoke the authority or limit the access at any time by providing us with notice.

The third party’s authority to operate on your account ceases:

  • when you or your attorney tell us
  • on your death.

We may, at our discretion, refuse to act on any authority to operate or power of attorney document at any time, if the authority or power of attorney is not valid or if we become aware of fraud, non-compliance with the authority or power of attorney or any unlawful activity. We may remove the authority to comply with AML/CTF laws.

To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for any decision to act, or not act, on any authority to operate or power of attorney document.

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