Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Your eligible deposits with Halifax are protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the UK’s deposit protection scheme. This limit is applied to the total of any deposits you have with the following: Halifax, Intelligent Finance (IF), Birmingham Midshires (BM Savings), Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland Private Banking, Bank of Scotland Germany, Bank of Scotland The Netherlands, Bank of Scotland Treasury, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets and St. James’s Place Bank. Some savings accounts under the AA Savings, Saga and Charities Aid Foundation brand names are also deposits with Bank of Scotland plc. Any total deposits you hold above the £85,000 limit between these brands are not covered.
Please read the guide to protecting your money (opens as PDF) for further information or visit www.fscs.org.uk.
Lloyds Banking Group
Halifax is a trading name of Bank of Scotland plc. Bank of Scotland plc is one of Lloyds Banking Group plc's group companies.
Added peace of mind from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme provides customers with extra peace of mind that their money is safe.
Bank of Scotland plc and Lloyds TSB savings continue to be covered separately under this scheme, as both organisations are covered by separate banking licences. Should there be any changes to our banking licences in future, we will contact you to tell you about them in the usual way.
Some more detailed Questions & Answers on the compensation scheme are outlined below:
What is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme?
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) can pay compensation to consumers in the event that an authorised financial services firm is unable to pay back customers' money and generally cannot meet claims made by customers against it.
The FSCS is an independent body set up under the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000. The scheme applies to different products in different ways.
How much of my money in my Halifax accounts would be protected by the FSCS?
You can currently claim up to £85,000 in compensation for your money held in savings and current accounts. If your money is in a joint account, each of you can claim up to £85,000.
That means that if there are two of you on the account you are jointly protected for up to £170,000 compensation. The FSCS assumes that the money is owned equally between the account holders (unless evidence shows otherwise).
Is my child’s Halifax account in a Trustee’s name covered?
Yes. Where a trustee holds an account in trust for another person, like a child, then the trustee will have a claim against the scheme for the trust. That claim will be treated separately to any claim the trustee makes for any accounts in their own name.
What about my money in accounts in other Bank of Scotland plc and Lloyds TSB divisions?
Under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme you are covered separately for the deposits you have with each separately licensed bank.
Bank of Scotland plc and Lloyds TSB savings continue to be covered separately under this scheme, as both organisations are covered by different banking licences. Should there be any changes to our banking licences in future, we will contact you to tell you about them in the usual way.
Deposits with us are held with Bank of Scotland plc and are covered by the Bank of Scotland banking licence.
£85,000 (£170,000 for joint accounts) is the maximum compensation you could get for all of your money held in bank accounts or savings accounts with Bank of Scotland plc.
If you are unsure whether your account is held with a Bank of Scotland plc, please check your account literature.
Lloyds TSB has three core licensed banks operating on the high street, Lloyds TSB Bank, Lloyds TSB Private Banking and Lloyds TSB Scotland, plus two further licences for subsidiaries, Agricultural Mortgage Corporation Bank and Scottish Widows Bank.
Are my investment products protected by the FSCS?
As well as protection for bank accounts and savings the scheme also provides protection in the event an FSA authorised company cannot meet claims made against it in relation to investment and long-term insurance products.
The actual level of compensation a client would receive will depend on the basis of their claim. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme will consider each claim individually at the time it is made. FSCS can only pay compensation for financial loss and there are limits to the amounts of compensation the FSCS can pay. Maximum FSCS compensation limits are per person (per provider firm and per category of claim).
Investments category – Open-Ended Investment Company (OEIC)
For firms that are declared in default on or after 1 January 2010 the maximum limit is £50,000 per person per firm. Where a firm has been declared in default before 1 January 2010, the amounts are 100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000 up to £48,000 in total per person per firm. OEIC funds are not directly covered by the FSCS. However, the firm which runs the OEIC is covered as the Authorised Corporate Director.
For Investment and Long-term insurances claims, customers would be covered per person, per separately authorised institution so you can make multiple claims – one per product category per each FSA authorised institution which is a member of the scheme. The separately authorised institutions within Lloyds Banking Group are: Halifax Life Limited, St Andrew's Life Assurance plc, Clerical Medical Investment Group Limited, HBOS Investment Fund Managers Limited, Clerical Medical Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Scottish Widows plc, Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers, Scottish Widows Bank and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership.
Long-term insurance category
For firms declared in default on or after 1 January 2010 insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without an upper limit. For firms declared in default before 1 January 2010 it is 100% of the first £2,000 plus 90% of the remainder. Personal Investment Plan, Guaranteed Investment Plan, Guaranteed Growth Bond, Investment Bond and Halifax Bonus Bond, Stakeholder Pension, Flexible Protection Plan and Protection for Life products all fall under the long-term insurance category as they are life assurance products and not classed as Investments under the scheme rules.
For Investment and Long-term insurances claims, customers would be covered per person, per separately authorised institution so you can make multiple claims – one per product category per each FSA authorised institution which is a member of the scheme. The separately authorised institutions within Lloyds Banking Group are: Halifax Life Limited, St Andrew's Life Assurance plc, Clerical Medical Investment Group Limited, HBOS Investment Fund Managers Limited, Clerical Medical Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Scottish Widows plc, Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers, Scottish Widows Bank and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership.
