Who writes the letter
A bank reference letter comes from the bank itself, not from any government office. A branch or the bank's business banking team writes it, confirming how long an account has been open and how it has been run, and an authorised signatory signs it before it leaves the bank. Most banks charge a small administrative fee for producing one, separate from anything the apostille process costs. That fee, and how quickly the bank turns the letter around, varies from bank to bank and sits entirely outside what the FCDO controls.
Nottingham Register Office, at The Council House, Old Market Square, Nottingham NG1 2DT, deals with certified copies of birth, marriage and death records. It has nothing to do with banking paperwork, so a reader planning this apostille can skip it entirely and go straight to the bank that holds the account. No civil record sits anywhere near this process, which makes it simpler than an apostille built around a birth or death certificate.
Why a receiving country asks for it
A bank abroad often wants a reference letter before opening a new account for someone moving from the UK. It shows the applicant already banks responsibly somewhere else, which speeds up the checks a new bank has to run. Some banks ask for it as a routine part of account opening, without any red flag on the applicant's history at all.
A landlord or letting agent overseas sometimes asks for the same letter as proof of financial standing before signing a tenancy. A property purchase abroad can carry a similar requirement, and some visa applications ask for bank references to show an applicant can support themselves once they arrive. Each of these readers wants the same reassurance from a different angle: that the money behind the application is real and accounted for.
Moving the letter on from Nottingham
Whichever bank issued the letter, and whichever city the account holder lives in, the same national office applies the apostille. Nottingham does not change that; the FCDO Legalisation Office is the one authority for every UK apostille, wherever the underlying paper was signed. Someone banking in Nottingham and someone banking in a different city end up sending their letter to exactly the same address.
The letter itself, once signed by the bank, is what gets sent on. There is no separate certification step for most banks' letters, unlike a document a company writes for itself, because the bank's own signature and letterhead already carry weight with the Legalisation Office. That makes this one of the simpler apostille journeys on this site, with fewer steps between signing and stamping than most.
Translation notes
Whether a translated version is needed depends on the receiving bank or authority abroad, not on the FCDO. Some accept the English letter with the apostille attached; others want a certified translation stapled to it before they will act on the reference. A translator working from English into the destination language tends to satisfy stricter receiving banks better than a general translation service would.
Cost and turnaround
The standard postal apostille costs £45 per document. A registered business, rather than a private individual, can instead use the next-day route for £40 per document. Both routes cover only the apostille fee, not any charge the bank itself makes for writing the letter.
Standard turnaround runs up to 25 working days, plus postage time each way. That figure is not fixed; a busy period at the Legalisation Office can push it toward the upper end. Requesting the letter from the bank early, well before it is needed abroad, keeps the whole timeline comfortable.
The faster next-day service is limited to registered businesses acting on someone's behalf, such as a relocation agent or a solicitor's firm handling the paperwork. A private individual applying alone should plan around the standard route instead. Knowing which route applies before the letter is even requested from the bank avoids a mismatch between the timeline and the deadline abroad.