I know that this functionality has been under consideration by at least some banks. It’s an attractive proposition because it means that people then wouldn’t share their own logon credentials. Another benefit is that you might be able to opt for different levels of supervision. For example:
- The person to whom you’re granting access may only be given read-only access, so they can see what’s going in and out of your account
- They might have authorisation access, so whenever the account holder tries to set up a new payment, it would have to be authorised by the person acting as supervisor. This would be particularly useful for vulnerable account holders who may be at risk of falling prey to fraudsters. You could imagine yourself receiving a notification whenever, for example, your grandmother had tried to set up a payment, and you’d exercise your judgement
- They may have full control, but would log on with their own username and password, and so it would be much clearer who had made what transaction from the account - reducing the likelihood of confusion later
It’s not clear to me whether a formal power of attorney would be necessary in all cases, or only in the third case.