The 95-day notice account pays 1% AER. RCI Bank’s 95-day notice account was a previous best buy and pays 0.82%, while Investec and the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) both pay 0.8%.

Recognise’s five-year fixed rate account pays 2% AER. In comparison, Isbank pays 1.8% and JN Bank 1.75%.

Recognise Bank launched at the end of last year, initially providing commercial loans and mortgages to the SME business sector. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) lifted Recognise Bank’s deposit restrictions yesterday, allowing it to provide a wider range of services. It plans to launch business savings accounts and more personal savings accounts later in the year.

All of Recognise Bank’s personal savings accounts are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), meaning savers’ money is protected up to the scheme’s limit of £85,000 per person and £170,000 for joint accounts.

The bank will use the money in personal savings accounts to support its lending to small and medium sized businesses.

Jason Oakley, CEO of Recognise Bank, said: “Recognise’s presence in the personal savings market is an important part of our mission to support the UK’s growing small and medium sized businesses. Our founding ethos, and the reason for the bank’s name, is to focus on the SME community, which has been so overlooked and neglected by mainstream banking.

“By saving with Recognise Bank, customers will not only have a safe home for their money, they will also know that their FSCS-protected savings are helping ambitious SMEs, so they are directly supporting the UK economy as well.”