Your funds are held safeguarded and are separate from the operational funds of DOS & Co. Ltd., the scheme provider. In the unlikely event of its insolvency, your funds are not available to its creditors and the administrators would contact you to arrange the return of your funds from the Bank of London, where they are held safeguarded in the Employer's name.
Your funds are held in segregated client accounts at the Bank of London which, in turn, stores those funds unencumbered at the Bank of England. The Bank of London is also part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, protecting eligible deposits as well.
When you apply to us to open your construction retention account, we will issue you with the account opening paperwork, conduct our mandatory compliance checks on the paying party and then issue you with the account details for the paying party to send the retention to each month.
On a monthly basis, one of the parties (or their representatives) will provide us with a payment certificate showing the amount of retention we are to expect. When we receive the retention, we will credit it to your Retention Deposit Scheme account.
You can access your account online through our portal to check on the status and balance of your retention at any time.
No. The Retention Deposit Scheme is a trading name of DOS & Co., a registered payment service provider. Under its FCA permissions, DOS & Co. can carry out all services enabling cash to be placed on a payment account as well as all operations required for operating a payment account. For the Retention Deposit Scheme, however, DOS & Co. works as escrow agent, opening an account on your behalf and in your name at the Bank of London, which stores your funds unencumbered at the Bank of England.
The UK Retention Deposit Scheme is a privately-run, independent scheme for the protection of construction retentions in the United Kingdom.
It is run by DOS & Co., a legal and payment services firm that provides unrestricted legal services, escrow services and regulated payment services. DOS & Co. Ltd., the scheme provider, is registered in England and Wales, and also registered with the Financial Conduct Authority for the provision of payment services. You will find it on the Financial Services Register under Firm Reference Number 833374.
We don't lend, invest or leverage your retentions. We simply hold all deposits in full and unencumbered at the Bank of England, always keeping them fully available on demand.
Retentions are safeguarded and protected from the trading activities of any underlying bank, meaning that even if the worst happens to a bank, or there is a run on its funds, or even if anything happens to us, your retentions are 100% secure.