Reader Question:
I have around £45,000 saved in a Santander savings account. Is my money safe or should I move it?
My response:
This a popular question which I am asked regularly. Savers see newspaper headlines about the bailing out of Spanish banks and understandably worry that their savings with the likes of Santander, in the UK, are about to disappear.
But firstly your savings account is with Santander UK which is ring fenced from other parts of the Santander Group.
Also, Santander UK is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and deposits held with the bank are covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the event that the bank went bust, but up to certain limits.
Under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) savers are compensated up to a maximum of £85,000 if their bank were to collapse, and this would be doubled up to £170,000 if they held a joint account. In your case you would be covered for the full £45,000 you hold with Santander UK.
Obviously if someone had savings above the FSCS limits, with one or more banks, then from a security perspective they should think about spreading their savings amongst a number of different banks. In doing so each account would then be protected up to the £85,000 FSCS limit.
One thing to bear in mind when opening new bank accounts is that although a banks may have a different name it might be part of a bigger group. In which case only a total of £85,000 of savings would be protected across the whole group.
In the case of Santander UK - Cahoot, Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and the Alliance & Leicester brands all come under the Santander UK licence which means just one £85,000 limit would apply to a person's total savings across all of them.
I hope that helps
Damien
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