What is an unregistered association?
An unregistered association as a group that consists of natural persons or legal persons and has not been registered in the Finnish Register of Associations or a similar register. Unregistered associations include school classes, class committees, kindergarten groups and social clubs, for example.
Establishing a customer relationship and opening an account
An unregistered association is not a legal person. Therefore, banking services cannot be established under its name. If any such group wishes to open an account at OP cooperative bank, we can conclude an account agreement under the name of one, or preferably more, natural persons. This means that we will establish a customer relationship between the persons opening the account and OP cooperative bank, not between the unregistered association and the bank.
When opening an account, the bank needs to know what the account will be used for and an estimation of the amount of payment transfers. We recommend for an account to be opened under the name of 2 – 3 natural persons.
Please note that
- From the perspective of the bank, the account holders are the owners of the account funds and they have the right to decide on the use of the funds.
- The account holders are personally responsible for the use of account funds on behalf of the unregistered association.
- The account holders are also responsible for ensuring that the funds are not mistakenly included in a deceased account holder’s death estate, for example.
Different authorities, such as the Social Insurance Institution of Finland or the Enforcement Office, may also consider account funds to be personal funds of an account holder.
We do not recommend opening an account for an unregistered association under the name of a person who receives discretionary benefits or is under risk of foreclosure. If the unregistered association does not wish to open an account under the name of natural persons, the other option is to register the association. In such case, we can open an account under the name of the registered association.
How to open an account for an unregistered association for example a school class
A current account is opened for an unregistered association. If all of the intended account holders are customers of the same OP cooperative bank and the operations of the unregistered association are smallscale, you can open a current account online. If this is not the case, please book an appointment for a meeting at the bank branch.
After opening the new current account, please send us an online message stating that you wish to add other account holders to the account. The message should also state:
- the account number
- the names and personal ID codes of the account holders to be added
- and a mention that all account holders are entitled to use the account separately.
- Let us also know what the account will be used for and an estimation of the amount of payment transfers.
When opening the account, check that your KYC information is up to date. KYC means Know Your Customer, and it’s information that all banks must ask from their customers. To check your KYC information in English, open OP-mobile on the front page and select More - My profile - KYC information. You can also check the information in Finnish in the op.fi service under Oma profiili (My profile) after logging in: Oma profiili - Oma asiointi - Omat tiedot.