Teya launches business savings pots with ClearBank

Teya, the payments and business-account provider, has added interest-bearing savings to its app through a partnership with ClearBank, the UK-authorised bank that supplies the underlying deposit accounts. Teya and ClearBank announced the launch of Savings Pots on 24 September 2026, offering a 3% variable Annual Equivalent Rate (AER) to existing UK Teya Business Account holders.

The product matters for UK small businesses because it embeds a savings account inside the Teya app used by eligible Business Account customers, rather than requiring a separate relationship with a bank. It also raises a distinction that every user needs to understand: money sitting in a Savings Pot is treated differently, for protection purposes, from money left in the ordinary Teya Business Account.

How Savings Pots work

Savings Pots are opened and managed inside the Teya app by customers who already hold a Teya Business Account. A business can open up to ten pots. Teya said on 27 August 2026 that there was no fixed maximum savings balance, though opening additional pots does not increase the protection available on the money held in them (see below).

ClearBank calculates interest daily, using the cleared Savings Pots balance recorded at 11:59pm, and Teya says the interest is paid into the pot on the next calendar day. Teya's help material notes that a payment may not show until accrued interest reaches at least 1p.

Money can move between a Savings Pot and the linked Teya Business Account at any time. Teya describes these transfers as instant or near-real-time, with no notice period and no withdrawal penalty. The product is therefore marketed as instant access rather than a fixed-term or notice account.

A Savings Pot requires an active Teya Business Account, and the Business Account itself is only available to Teya customers who have an active card machine. Teya also states that Savings Pots are not currently available to US citizens or US residents, because of international tax-reporting rules. Beyond these points, Teya's public information does not specify which legal business forms — sole traders, partnerships, limited companies — are eligible; its onboarding criteria would settle that.

What the 3% variable AER means in practice

AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate. It is a standardised way of showing what a saver would earn over a year if interest were paid and compounded at the stated frequency, which allows different accounts to be compared on a like-for-like basis.

Teya says it sets the Savings Pots rate itself, describing it as a variable tracker linked to the Bank of England base rate. The 3% figure is the launch rate as at 24 September 2026, not a fixed or guaranteed rate. Teya's public material does not disclose the tracker margin or the mechanics of how a Bank Rate move would feed through, so it is not possible to say from the available sources exactly how the rate would change if Bank Rate changes.

Teya says it will give customers at least 14 days' notice of a rate reduction, while an increase can be applied without advance notice. Customers are directed to check the current rate in the app, in the product's Summary Box, or on their statement, since the rate can move after launch.

Who actually holds the money

This is the point in the story that most affects how safe a business's savings are. Savings Pots are deposit accounts powered by ClearBank, a UK-authorised bank, delivered through ClearBank's embedded-banking infrastructure. ClearBank, not Teya, is the institution holding the deposit.

That is a different arrangement from the ordinary Teya Business Account. Teya states plainly that the Business Account is an e-money account, not a bank account. Funds held in it are safeguarded under the applicable payments and e-money rules, which is a distinct legal protection from deposit protection, and the Business Account is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Eligible deposits held in Savings Pots, by contrast, may be covered by the FSCS, because they sit with ClearBank as a deposit-taking bank. ClearBank's own launch material uses the broader phrase "FSCS-insured" in places, but Teya's more detailed customer-facing wording is narrower: cover applies only to eligible deposits, and only up to the applicable limit. This article uses the narrower, more precise formulation.

FSCS protection and its limits

Where a deposit is eligible, the FSCS standard protection limit is £120,000 per eligible depositor, per PRA-authorised institution, effective from 1 December 2025 (previously £85,000). The Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have confirmed that this limit operates per institution and is aggregated: money held across different accounts and brands that share the same banking licence counts together toward the single £120,000 limit, rather than being protected separately account by account.

Teya states that the £120,000 limit applies across the whole of a customer's eligible deposits held with ClearBank, not separately to each individual Savings Pot. In other words, opening ten pots does not create ten lots of protection; the limit applies to the customer as a depositor of ClearBank as a whole. A business that also holds ClearBank-backed deposits through another brand would need to add those balances into the same £120,000 total.

Cover also depends on depositor and deposit eligibility rules set by the FSCS, which the available sources do not set out in full for this product. A business wanting certainty about its own position would need to check its account terms, ClearBank's eligibility information, and the official FSCS rules, rather than assume that all of its money is protected.

Why Teya is adding savings now

Sahithya Vemana, Teya's Head of Banking, is quoted in ClearBank's launch material citing internal research: more than half of Teya members interviewed said they did not earn interest on spare cash because managing money across multiple accounts felt like too much hassle. Teya has not published the sample size, fieldwork dates or methodology behind that figure, so it should be read as a company-reported finding rather than a representative measure of UK small-business behaviour generally.

ClearBank describes Savings Pots as the first savings product to come out of its partnership with Teya, and says further products are planned. Teya has said the ClearBank integration supported both Savings Pots and an upcoming premium savings product, and that the two were built on one integration in four months. No rate, fee, eligibility criteria or launch date have been published for the premium product.

Risk and practical points to check

Money held in Savings Pots can still lose relative value in real terms if inflation outpaces the interest rate, and the rate itself is variable and can fall as well as rise, subject to Teya's stated 14-day notice period for reductions. The available sources do not confirm whether any account fee applies specifically to Savings Pots, separate from the free Business Account Teya advertises elsewhere. The Summary Box and full product terms were not available in the material reviewed for this article; eligible customers should check the version accessible through the Teya app for the exact interest formula, any fees, and the complete list of eligibility exclusions before relying on the product for cash management.

What to watch next

Teya's proposed premium savings product, which the company says was built on the same ClearBank integration as Savings Pots, has no published rate, fee, eligibility criteria or launch date; watch for those terms when they appear. Any change to the 3% variable AER — up or down — is also worth tracking, given Teya's 14-day notice period for reductions. ClearBank and Teya have not said whether they will publish take-up data, such as the number of customers or businesses using Savings Pots.