About us

What is FSCS?

FSCS exists to protect customers of financial services firms that have failed. If the company you’ve been dealing with has failed and can’t pay claims against it, we can step in to pay compensation.

We make it as quick and easy as possible to make a compensation claim with our online claims service and it's completely free to claim with us. We know it can be a very stressful time, so our customer support team is here to help you every step of the way.

You can find out more about the financial products we protect on our compensation limits page and learn more about what makes someone eligible under our rules.

Key facts about FSCS

• In 2018-2019 we paid out £473m to 425,760 customers of failed firms.
• We’ve recovered £20 billion from the 2008 bank failures and repaid all £20.5 billion borrowed from HM Treasury that year.
• We’ve returned £375 million from other recoveries to the industry in the last five years.
• We were set up in 2001 under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
• We are independent of the government and financial services industry.
• We can pay compensation thanks to levies that authorised financial services firms pay.