Are my investments safe with a building society?

People who put their money into a building society account are automatically covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Until 30 September 2007, savers were entitled to 100% compensation for the first £2,000 invested. Above that, they could claim 90% of the next £33,000, making a maximum claim of £31,700.   On 1 October 2007 the Financial Services Authority announced that, from that date, savers would be entitled to 100% compensation on the first £35,000 invested.

The compensation limit applies to each saver for the total of their savings with a building society, regardless of how many accounts they hold or whether they are a single or joint account holder. In the case of a joint account FSCS will assume that the money in that account is split equally between account holders, unless evidence shows otherwise. This means that each account holder in a joint account would be eligible for compensation up to the maximum limit.

However, no investor has lost money with a building society since at least 1945 and probably for a long time before that. Accordingly neither the scheme nor its predecessor schemes have ever been put into practice for building society investors.

Further information can be found in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme booklet for consumers, linked to below.

If you have invested in Permanent Interest Bearing Shares (PIBS)  please see our  question What are PIBS?, linked to below. 

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