This information applies to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
If your bank or building society goes out of business, and you lose money as a result, you might be able to get some of your money back.
On this page you can find out more about if you can get your money back, or how to claim compensation. You can find out about:
There is also more information about what to do if your bank or building society goes out of business, and other organisations that might be able to help you.
If a bank or building society goes out of business and you lose money as a result, you won't have priority for getting your money back. You will only get money back if the bank has any assets left after paying off it's priority creditors, and even then, you may not get all of the money you're owed.
If your bank or building society has no money left to pay you, you may be able to claim compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). To be able to claim compensation from the FSCS, your bank or building society must be authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Under the FSCS, you can claim up to £85,000 for the total of your deposits in one bank or building society. It doesn't matter how many different accounts you hold. For example, if you have two accounts in HSBC with £85,000 in each, you can only claim back a total of £85,000.
Joint account holders can each claim up to £85,000 on the accounts they hold with one bank or building society.
If you have any outstanding debts with the bank or building society, these will be deducted from the amount of compensation you can get. For example, if you have an £85,000 deposit and a loan of £20,000, then you would only be compensated for the loss of £65,000.
If you have an account with an authorised bank or building society which has gone out of business, you should be contacted by the FSCS. If you think you are entitled to make a claim but the FSCS has not contacted you, you should get in touch with them.
If your total deposits add up to more than the compensation limit, you will still only be able get compensation up to £85,000 under the FSCS. However, you may also be able to get back more of your money as well as this compensation. You may be able to get a share of your deposit back following the distribution of assets as part of the insolvency process of the bank or building society going out of business. You will have to wait until the insolvency process is complete to find out if you are able to get any more money back.
If you have investments with a bank or building society that goes out of business you will only be able to get compensation up to £50,000 under the FSCS. If you have a pension, long-term life insurance, or general insurance you will be compensated up to 90 per cent with no upper limit to what you can claim.
To find out which countries are in the EEA, see Timeshare and holiday clubs.
If you have money in different banks or building societies, you can claim up to £85,000 for each bank or building society, as long as they hold separate banking licences. For example, if you have £85,000 in Barclays and £85,000 in HSBC, then you can claim back £170,000.
Where the banks or building societies don't hold separate banking licences, you can only claim up to £85,000, regardless of the number of accounts you hold. For example, if you have £85,000 in the Halifax and £85,000 in the Bank of Scotland, you can only claim up to £85,000 as Halifax and Bank of Scotland are authorised under the same banking licence.
For more information about banks and building societies and the services they offer, see Banks and building societies.
You may also find the following Adviceguide information helpful:
The Money Advice Service is a free, independent service. Their website has lots of useful information about bank accounts and other financial products, including information on getting compensation. Go to: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk.
You can check whether a bank or building society is authorised by the FSA on the FSA's Register at: www.fsa.gov.uk., or by contacting the FSA consumer helpline on: 0845 606 1234. To check whether the bank or building society holds a separate banking licence, contact the FSA consumer helpline.
For more information about the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) see the FSCS leaflet How we can help at: www.fscs.org.uk.
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