List of banks by institution

Since the banks demonstrated that it is possible for them to fail, people have become more concerned with the safety of their cash.

The government reacted to this by offering a compensation scheme covering savers for up to £50,000 per institution.

However, it is not always clear which banks belong to which institutions and if you have more than 50K saved, you will want to spread it around to provide maximum compensation coverage.

This information is available online, with details of which banks have separate registrations with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and which fall under the same institution.

The banks listed in the white table below hold an independent FSA registration, so if your cash is spread across multiple savings accounts shown in this table, up to £50,000 will be compensated for each.

It is also important to scour the market for the best isa rates and top paying savings accounts to ensure you're earning the highest possible returns on your investment.

For a full up-to-date list on which banks are counted as individual, with an independent FSA registration, and which fall under the same institution, check out the savings accounts section at www.which4u.co.uk. This page is regularly updated to cite any changes in the banking sector.

Grouped Banks The coloured table at the bottom of the page shows which banks/building societies fall under the same institution. The banks are also numbered to aid colour blind readers.

If you have multiple savings accounts that fall within the same colour/number, you will only be covered for up to £50,000 spread between these accounts. You can still hold multiple accounts with different colours, but the key is to mix them, spreading your money across several savings accounts.

HBOS and Lloyds

Lloyds TSB Group plc was renamed as Lloyds Banking Group on 19 January 2009, after the acquisition of HBOS plc. Although this technically makes them part of the same banking institution, the FSCS licences will remain the same, so Lloyds and HBOS will continue to be treated as two are separate institutions in terms of the amount of compensation offered, covering savers in each up to £50,000.

However, it is important to remember that the main parts of former HBOS (Halifax, Bank of Scotland, B'ham Midshires, Intelligent Finance, The AA and Saga) together hold a single registration, so savers that hold money in multiple accounts across more than one of these providers would only receive up to £50,000 cover in total (£100,000 for joint accounts).

You can also find a table that shows the level of compensation offered by non UK banks. The schemes offered by these banks work in much the same way as the UK schemes, whereby savers can only guarantee a single compensation limit amoung accounts that fall within the same banking institution. For example, accounts held across the Santander brand -Alliance and Leicester, Asda, Bradford and Bingley and Cahoot would only provide £50,000 compensation between them as they all fall under the Santander group.