Total cash assets held by large charities has increased by £0.5bn over the last year, according to latest financial data.

The 2018 Charity Banking Spotlight Report by Charity Financials has revealed that the top 5,000 charities in terms of income and expenditure collectively hold cash assets of £16.7bn. This is up by £0.5bn on the £16.2bn reported last year.

The latest rise is part of a steady growth in the amount of cash held by charities since 2014 when the total slumped to £15.4bn from £16.7bn recorded in 2012.

Charity Financials says that it expects this growth to continue.

“Since then (2014), the value of charity cash assets has grown steadily and now we can report that figures have returned to roughly the same high point recorded in 2012. We expect this positive trend to continue,” states the report.

The report has recorded details of charity bank relationships for the last 16 years. Over this time 14% of charities have used the same bank and 55% of relationships have lasted for 10 years or more.

The report also includes a detailed look at the banking habits of the top 25 charities in terms of cash they hold.

Top of the list is the Charities Aid Foundation, which hold cash worth £941m in the year ending 30 April, 2017. Second is the Church Commissioners for England, which has cash assets worth £370.5m as of 31 December 2017.

Barclays, which has sponsored the report, continues to be the most popular bank among the top 100 charities in terms of income, with the bank looking after the cash assets of 30 of this elite group. The second most popular is HSBC, with 17 clients.

The cash included in the report does not contain cash within fixed assets that is earmarked for investment.

The top 5,000 charities are defined as having either an annual income above £1.431m, annual expenditure more than £1.479m or total funds//net assets greater than £3.444m.

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