Hi Penny1286.

I believe there's a few trust deed firms that now review bank statements in this way. It usually uses "open banking" to download a record of your transactions.

The efficiency for you is that you don't have to fiddle about collecting and then posting or emailing your bank statements. The efficiency for the firm is that the system will classify your spending on bills and expenses without much human intervention. It also obviously captures and classifies your income.

Authorised providers of open banking services are highly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

I do think open banking is a useful technology and I think you will find its use becomes commonplace in many areas of our lives over the next few years. It is up to you whether you are comfortable with granting this access though and I am sure that if you have a problem with doing so then you should be able to just send in statements instead.

As TDA says, your trustee's system will probably scan and sort the transactions to input the information onto a budget breakdown. This may not always give a true picture depending upon circumstances - for example if you are part of a couple then it would surely struggle to deal with the fact that your partner may pay for some things and you for others. So there is definitely still a need for human intervention and assessment as part of the process. But if nothing else, open banking should make it easier for you to provide the information they need.