What's the level of protection offered to savers?

How your savings and investments are protected

Savers and investors are afforded with the following levels of protection:

• Deposit taking firm - 100% of the first £50,000 per individual
• Insurance firm - the first £2,000 of an insurance claim or policy is covered in full, plus 90% of the balance. Compulsory insurance claims are covered in full.
• Investment firm - the limit is £48,000 (100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000) per individual.
• Other EEA Banks and Building Societies (including deposits with UK branches of those institutions) - up to 100% of first €20,000 per individual
• Gibraltar Deposit Guarantee Scheme - the lesser of £18,000 (or the sterling equivalent of €20,000 whichever is the greater)
• Isle of Man Banking Business (Compensation of Depositors) Regulations 1991 (Financial Supervision Act (IOM) 1988) - 75% of the first £20,000 per individual
• Jersey and Guernsey - no Depositor Protection Schemes

The Government has since introduced further measures to protect savers, full details can be found on the following article by the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7482607.stm

The information about EEA banks above is correct (works out to around €20,000 worth of protection). However, these EEA institutions can opt to top-up their protection to a level equivalent to the UK scheme. The Compensation Scheme website has a list of those firms that have topped-up :

http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/how_to_claim/deposits/eea_firms_that_have_topped_up/

This includes some well known names like Icesave, ING Direct and Bank of Ireland.

By the way, the EEA includes all the EU Members, plus Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Gibraltar.

 Hi Stephen . i am a little confused here . the paragraph. Other EEA banks and building societies . Am i to understand that Banks in Spain are covered by this ? and that any monies i have in our bank account in Spain , would be covered for the first 20,000 euro per person or account . i have been trying to find out, what if any cover we may have, in our Spanish acc . i have emailed the bank in question and am still awaiting a response . i have looked all over the web and this is the first reference i have come across . I would be most grateful for any information you could give me ...Alan

 Guernsey has now implemented a Deposit Protection Scheme which protects all retail deposits. The scheme is called the Guernsey Banking Deposit Compensation Scheme and has been put in place to ensure that Guernsey is still seen as a competitive place to save. The key elements of the scheme are:

• The scheme covers all individual retail depositors, wherever they live.
• The scheme provides compensation of up to £50,000 per person per licensed bank, no matter how many accounts they have with that bank.
• The scheme will pay compensation within three months of a bank failure.

Jersey however has yet to implement such a scheme.