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I am looking to describe the relationship between a bank account (such as a checking account, a loan, etc.) to a bank or other financial institution.

Right now, I am using is conducted by, as in

Account 123 is conducted by My Credit Union.

I have also considered is held at (or is being held at), and is managed by.

But all of these seem awkward. Are there other phrases or words for this relationship that are accurate and more elegant?

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5  
held at is the usual phrase and can be understood by all – JoseK Jun 15 '11 at 8:00
you can also say that account was opened with, though you'll have to specify that it is still used afterwards. – Unreason Jun 15 '11 at 8:40
@Unreason ... except that accounts currently held by Bank X weren't necessarily opened there, if the bank has subsequently been bought by or merged with another. – Dave DuPlantis Jun 15 '11 at 13:27
@Dave DuPlantis, yes of course, was not trying to give an answer in the comments, just a suggestion (the account could have been moved, closed, emptied, etc...) so you have to specify that it is still used afterwards. – Unreason Jun 15 '11 at 14:53
@Unreason, that still leaves us with the OP's original question, doesn't it? Expressing how it's currently used seems to me to be the issue ... – Dave DuPlantis Jun 15 '11 at 15:01

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

You could switch it around:

The Commonwealth Bank holds account 123

But its normally:

Account 123 is held at the Commonwealth Bank

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The reason I dislike "is held at" is the the term "account holder" is the person(s) who own the account. – Jay Elston Jun 16 '11 at 18:39
I have decided on "is held at". Searching Google Books, and then getting context by reading some of the excerpts where the phrases were used really helped. I am naming portions of a computer program, so I was not able to "turn it around". – Jay Elston Jun 24 '11 at 0:43
up vote 2 down vote

Held by (or at) is perhaps the most common phrase in this case. Managed by is also quite common. A search turned up several other possible phrases to express this relationship:

Various accounts are also said to be owned, maintained, rendered, kept, controlled, administered, handled, implemented, operated, run, and trusteed by their various financial institutions.

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I hate to complain, but owned by does not work, as the bank does not own the account. Maintained seems to refer to an account value. Rendered implies that ownership is transferred. Controlled is performed by the account holder. I could not find usage examples of account is administered, implemented, or trusteed. Handled, Operated and run refer to way the account is used. On the other hand, kept seems to work OK. – Jay Elston Jun 16 '11 at 18:39
@Jay: I was just reporting phrases I found using this search. – Callithumpian Jun 16 '11 at 18:45
@Jay: Correction: for some reason my search is not translating in the link in my previous comment. I searched "account * by * bank" in Google Books for the above phrases. – Callithumpian Jun 16 '11 at 18:52
up vote 0 down vote

Serviced works for me. How about you?

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I did not find any occurrence of the phrase "account is serviced" on the Google ngram viewer – Jay Elston Jun 16 '11 at 18:40

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