Providing financial security for our members – Unsupported Business Models

How identifying risk keeps Tide members safe

At Tide, we take safety and security very seriously.

Our mission is to empower a diverse range of business owners to do what they love. Through our business account, small and medium-sized businesses can access the financial tools and services they need to thrive. Keeping our members safe is a vital part of this, to ensure that they not only have the resources but also the confidence to commit to their passions.

One of the many ways we can do this is through our acceptance criteria. By carefully controlling who joins and remains at Tide, we can protect against potential risks that may harm our members or our ability to support them.

Each business that applies to Tide carries a certain level of risk. This risk comes from factors such as what the business does, how it makes its money, and which industry it operates in.

The majority of people who apply to join Tide are accepted and can use our services within ten minutes. For some cases we may need to check more information related to them, their business and how they’ll use our products and services. We use a more in-depth process to understand this, which can take around two days.

However, a small percentage of applications are unfortunately too high-risk for us to accept. These can include businesses that accept donations, particularly if we or the business owner are unable to trace where these donations are coming from.

The same is true for certain high-risk industries. These industries are:

• The holding, managing and/or controlling of a third party’s (client’s/customer’s) funds in the Tide account. This includes using the funds on behalf of other individuals Insurance companies (incl. insurance brokers) 
• Trading of cryptocurrencies 
• The wholesale of precious metals and stones 
• Investments (incl. real estate investments) 
• Money services (such as foreign exchange, loan providers, money transfers) 
• Casinos, prize draws and other betting or gambling activities 
• Sale of unlicensed pharmaceuticals 
• Sale or trade of cannabidiol (CBD) products 
• Trading of weapons, explosives or armaments 
• Unlicensed trading and processing of scrap metal 
• Unlicensed waste management 
• Sale, import and export of used vehicles or heavy machinery 
• Escort services and other services in the adult industry 
• Bidding fee auctions 
• Non-profit organisations, including charities CICs and CIOs

We review and update our acceptance criteria regularly, and will never discriminate against anyone on the basis of political beliefs, religion, race or any other characteristic protected by law. We want to empower as many businesses as possible to thrive through Tide, while balancing that against any potential risk to our existing members. 

Our members’ businesses are also reviewed on an ongoing basis for this same reason. If the nature of a business we’ve accepted has changed, or it starts receiving donations or funds that are unable to be traced, we may have to take the decision to close their account. 

This is all part of our ongoing work to make sure that we keep Tide members safe, that we have the resources to fully support them and their businesses, and that we do our best to support ethical business practices in line with our regulatory requirements. Learn more.

We’re proud to help our members do what they love, and to do this in a way that is financially and legally secure for everyone.

If you have any questions or comments about this, get in touch at hello@tide.co and we’ll be happy to support you.