Who really owns your bank or building society?
Is your cash on deposit absolutely, guaranteed, 100% safe in British banks? That very much depends on where you keep your nest egg!
The UK's safety net for savings
Thanks to the near-collapse of some of Britain's biggest banks in 2008, the Government beefed up the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the state-supported safety net for savers.
Today, the FSCS guarantees 100% of the first £85,000 of cash savings per person per banking licence (including interest). Therefore, a couple with up to £170,000 in a joint account has all of this cash covered by the FSCS.
Then again, the important words here are 'per banking licence'. You should always spread your cash across different providers. Then again, this is easier said than done, as a single licence can cover several different banks, building societies or brands.
Who owns whom?
To help you work out how safe your cash is we've compiled a list of the biggest British banking and savings providers, showing you who owns whom.
With hundreds of different institutions to choose from, we haven't listed them all here. Instead, we've concentrated on the UK's biggest brands.
Remember, you get only one lot of £85,000 of FSCS protection per person for the total amount you hold across these banking licences.
Britain's biggest banks
1. HBOS (Halifax/Bank of Scotland group)
AA
Bank of Scotland
Birmingham Midshires
Halifax
Intelligent Finance
Saga
2. Lloyds Banking Group
Cheltenham and Gloucester
Lloyds Bank
Despite HBOS being acquired by Lloyds Bank, both HBOS and Lloyds Banking Group continue to operate under separate banking licences.
3. TSB
TSB
TSB has its own banking licence now.
4. Barclays
Barclays
Barclays Direct (formerly ING Direct)
Standard Life
Woolwich
5. HSBC
First Direct
HSBC
6. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
RBS
7. NatWest
NatWest
8. Ulster Bank
Ulster Bank
9. Coutts & Co
Coutts
Please note that RBS subsidiaries NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts all have their own, separate banking licences and are not covered by the RBS licence. So £85,000 with RBS and the same sum with NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts would be covered for four times £85,000 (£340,000) by the FSCS.
10. Santander UK
Cahoot
Santander
11. The Co-operative Bank
Britannia BS
Smile
The Co-operative Bank
12. Bank of Ireland UK
Bank of Ireland UK
Post Office
13. Clydesdale Bank PLC
Clydesdale Bank
Yorkshire Bank
14. Sainsbury's Bank
Sainsbury's Bank
15. Tesco Bank
Tesco Bank
16. Virgin Money
Virgin Money
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Britain's biggest building societies
1. Nationwide BS
Cheshire BS
Derbyshire BS
Dunfermline BS
Nationwide BS
2. Yorkshire BS
Barnsley BS
Chelsea BS
Egg
Norwich and Peterborough BS
Yorkshire BS
3. Coventry BS
Coventry BS
Stroud and Swindon BS
4. Skipton BS
Chesham BS (renamed Skipton BS)
Scarborough BS (renamed Skipton BS)
Skipton BS
Foreign banks and the FSCS
Some European banks accept British savings, but are not covered by the FSCS. Instead, under what's called the 'savings passport' scheme, some banks from the European Economic Area are covered by their home country's compensation scheme for savings.
The main one you might come across is the Dutch-owned Triodos Bank. It is covered by the Dutch equivalent of the FSCS up to a limit of €100,000 per person.
However, other banks from around the world with a UK subsidary are covered by the FSCS. These include:
Axis Bank UK
Bank of Cyprus UK
ICICI Bank UK
State Bank of India UK
NS&I
Finally, the Government's own piggy bank, National Savings & Investments (NS&I), is also covered by the FSCS. However, we expect the Government would cover all deposits in NS&I, apart from in the severest of financial meltdowns.
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