CAF's bank relaunched

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has rebranded its banking subsidiary, which has 10% of the charity banking market, to make its purpose clearer. CafCash Ltd will now be known as CAF Bank.

The name change was proposed after research revealed that charities were unable to guess the nature of the bank's business from its name alone.

CAF's head of banking services, Peter Mitchell, said the new name would better reflect its status as a bank that provides services exclusively to charities and non-profit organisations.

"The CafCash brand has served us well for 17 years, but our hope is that the new CAF Bank brand will communicate to charities, clearly and quickly, what we are and what we do. We will still aim to deliver the same high quality of service and market-leading interest rates as when we were CafCash."

The bank was first set up in 1986 for the benefit of the non-profit sector with no commercial agenda. It now has over 15,000 accounts, ?800m on deposit and an estimated 10% share of the charity banking market. CAF estimates that the extra interest it pays, compared with its high street competitors, is worth an extra ?18m a year to the voluntary sector.

In addition to current and deposit accounts, the bank now offers internet banking, an ATM cash card and QuickPay - an electronic regular payment system.