Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Your cash deposits with UK banks authorised by the Financial Services Authority are protected in full up to a maximum limit of £85,000 per person per bank (or £170,000 for joint accounts). Across the EU, similar protections apply: for instance in the eurozone the maximum protection level is €100,000 per person, or €200,000 per joint account.

Different limits apply to other types of investments, so please check with your adviser or provider.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is triggered when a bank (or another authorised financial institution) goes out of business, for example if it is subject to an insolvency action, such as liquidation or administration. It may also be triggered if the Financial Services Compensation Scheme considers the institution is likely to be unable to repay its depositors.

If you have accounts with a number of different banks, you may be covered to the maximum limit by each of them. But where apparently different banks are part of a single banking group, they may operate under the same FSA authorisation and therefore you would only be covered to the maximum limit once. You can check these on the FSA website at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/consumerinformation/uk_groups/index.shtml.

Full details of the scheme are available from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme website at http://www.fscs.org.uk/.