General Information

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) can pay compensation up to certain limits if you lose money when a bank, building society, insurance company or financial adviser has insufficient assets to meet claims, or is in insolvency/goes bust. The FSCS describes this as being “in default”.

It also looks at cases where you have been sold the wrong kind of product and lost money, and the person or company that gave you the advice has gone out of business.

You are not covered by the FSCS if:

• The company responsible is still in business – you must complain to them first (taking your case to the Financial Ombudsman if you are not satisfied)
• You lost money because the investment simply didn’t perform well (unless it was mis-sold or you were given misleading advice).

To qualify for compensation you must be eligible under the FSCS rules made by the Regulators - the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). While firms can try to interpret these complicated rules and inform customers about the protection they think might apply, it is ultimately up to FSCS whether or not you are eligible. The FSCS will assess this on a case by case basis, once a firm is in default and there are no guarantees.

The FSCS has compensation limits which are applied per person, per authorised (by the PRA and FCA) firm:

Deposits:

100% of the first £85,000

Investments:

100% of the first £85,000

Insurance Business:

100% of the claim with no upper limit

Your eligible deposits with Bank of Ireland (UK) plc are protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the UK's deposit guarantee scheme. This limit is applied to the total of any deposits you have with the following: ‘Bank of Ireland UK’ and ‘Post Office Money’ and savings accounts under the ‘AA Savings’ brand deposited with Bank of Ireland UK. Any total deposits you hold above the limit between these brands are unlikely to be covered.

Please click here for further information or visit www.fscs.org.uk

Post Office Money cash ISAs

For more information about how the savings in Post Office Money cash ISAs are protected, please read the Deposit Information Sheet. This sets out details of how your money is protected with Bank of Ireland UK, the 'deposit taker' for Post Office Money cash ISAs.

If you make deposits directly to us, we will initially pay these into an account held with NatWest. We will then transfer this money to Bank of Ireland UK. This is also what happens if we receive a transfer cheque from another ISA provider. Please note that any money you hold in other accounts with NatWest will count towards compensation limits.

You can find out more about how your money is protected when it's held in a bank or building society account by going to the FSCS website at www.fscs.org.uk.

You should also be aware that deposits made at a Post Office branch (including by cheque) will not initially be protected by the FSCS in the event of the failure of Post Office Limited, until that deposit is transferred by Post Office Limited to Bank of Ireland UK.

Further Information

The following websites provide more detailed information about FSCS coverage:

• www.fscs.org.uk
• www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk
• www.fca.org.uk

From the FCA website above you can search The Financial Services Register to check if a firm is authorised. You can also search for a table showing banking and savings brands covered by the same FCA authorisation.

You can also find out more about the FSCS by downloading their leaflet.