Banks, building societies and credit unions
If your bank, building society or credit union fails and can’t pay back your money, FSCS can automatically pay you compensation. Your provider must be authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) - you can check this on the Financial Services Register.
Check your money's safe
You can easily see how much of your money is protected by using our bank & savings protection checker.
Banks, building societies and credit unions
If the firm failed after 1 January 2017
If you hold money with a UK-authorised bank, building society or credit union that fails, we’ll automatically compensate you up to £85,000 per eligible person, per bank, building society or credit union.
Shared banking licenses
Where you hold your money could affect how much compensation you’re entitled to. If you have money in multiple accounts with multiple banks that are part of the same banking group (and share a banking licence) we have to treat them as one bank. This means that in the event of a firm failure, our £85,000 compensation limit applies to the total amount you hold across all these accounts, not to each separate account.
For our compensation limit to apply to each individual account, you’d need to hold money with different banks that don’t share a licence. You can search the Financial Services Register on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website to see which banks share a licence or check the lists of banking and building society brands on the Bank of England's website.
Joint accounts
Joint accounts are also eligible for FSCS protection up to the same limit of £85,000 per eligible person.
Please note, as above, if you have an individual account and a joint account within the same banking group, our £85,000 compensation limit will apply across these accounts, not to each separate account.
Temporary high balances
We also protect certain qualifying temporary high balances up to £1 million for six months from when the amount was first deposited.
You don’t need to do anything if your provider fails – FSCS will compensate you automatically.
You can easily see how much of your money is protected by using our bank & savings protection checker.
'FSCS Protected' badge
A quick and easy way of finding out whether a PRA-authorised bank, building society or credit union is protected by FSCS is by looking for the ‘FSCS Protected' badge.