The tax authority currently has three official banking partners and will not be changing contracts with NatWest and Citigroup. These three banking contracts are reported to be worth over £300m a year.

HMRC will confirm the new banking partner once the formal contract has been agreed so was unable to provide a timeline for the change. 

Details of this deal will be published on the government’s Contracts Finder in due course.

An HMRC spokesperson said: ‘We follow government procurement rules when awarding contracts, ensuring value for money for taxpayers.’

HMRC has used Barclays for the last eight years, since the Barclays agreement was signed in 2016, initially for seven years, then renewed. Prior to this point, there were only two banking partners.