Banking licences and the brands that share them

A banking licence is the permission a firm needs to operate as a bank in the UK, taking deposits and running current accounts and savings. Behind many of the brand names you see on the high street and in adverts sits a single licensed firm, and sometimes several familiar brands share that one licence. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protects deposits at UK-authorised firms that fail, covering deposits, insurance, investments, pensions and certain other regulated services¹. It pays compensation when your provider fails and cannot pay back your money itself².

The reason this matters to you is simple: deposit protection is counted per licence, not per brand. The FSCS protects up to £120,000 per eligible person, per bank, building society or credit union, for failures after 30 November 2025, with the new limit applying from 1 December 2025³. If two brands you use share one licence, your money in both counts together towards that single limit. Some well-known app-based companies, such as Starling, Zopa and Revolut, hold their own banking licences, while others, such as Chip, do not⁴.

What a banking licence means for your money

A banking licence, more precisely an authorisation from the UK's regulators, is what allows a firm to call itself a bank and hold your deposits. Only firms authorised in this way can offer the accounts most people think of as bank accounts, and only deposits with authorised banks, building societies and credit unions are protected by the FSCS. The regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, set the compensation limits and rules¹. How banks are authorised and supervised day to day is covered in how UK banks and building societies are regulated.

The licence sits at the level of the legal firm, not the brand. One licensed firm may run several brands, each with its own name, app and marketing, and each looking to you like a separate bank. The Bank of England gives the example that HSBC operates under brands including HSBC Private Banking and first direct⁹. Those brands are distinct in the app store but one firm in law, and for protection purposes they are one bank.

Not every company that looks like a bank holds a licence. Some app-based financial companies operate under e-money or payments rules instead. Under those rules, a payments firm must hold money received in exchange for issued e-money in a separate safeguarding account, apart from funds received for unrelated payment services¹⁰. That is a real requirement, but it is not deposit protection: your money is kept safe at a different bank rather than being insured up to a limit. The differences are set out in where deposit protection does not apply below.

FSCS protection: up to £120,000 per licence, not per brand

The headline rule is that the FSCS protects up to £120,000 per eligible person, per authorised firm⁵. For bank, building society and credit union failures, the maximum compensation limit is £120,000 per person, per banking licence⁵. The limit rose from £85,000 to £120,000 on 1 December 2025, and the new figure applies to failures after 30 November 2025³.

Two words in that rule do the work: "per firm". The limit is not per account and not per brand. If you have money in multiple accounts with multiple banks that are part of the same banking group and share a banking licence, they are treated as one bank, and the £120,000 limit applies across all of them³. The FSCS states it plainly:

The FSCS's deposit limit page⁵

This catches out people who think they are spreading risk by splitting savings between two brands in the same group. Two accounts at £70,000 each, held with two brands that share a licence, give you £140,000 exposed and £120,000 protected, leaving £20,000 uncovered. The same £140,000 split between two separately licensed firms would be fully protected. The protection follows the licence, so the practical question before opening any account is which licensed firm stands behind the brand. How to find that out is covered in how to check which licence a brand uses.

Only the deposits and savings limit works this way at this level: it is £120,000 per eligible person, per eligible firm, covering savings in banks, building societies and credit unions⁵. Other products the FSCS covers, such as insurance and investments, have their own limits and their own rules, and the FSCS or the Financial Ombudsman are separate routes for different problems.

Brands that share one licence count as a single bank

The clearest worked example is Lloyds Banking Group. Official statistics list Lloyds Banking Group as including the Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands¹¹, and the group's own regulatory reporting treats Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland together¹². For FSCS purposes, money in accounts with Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland counts towards one £120,000 limit, because those brands share a licence.

The same pattern appears across the market. The government's list of firms designated to offer basic bank accounts names the groups as they operate: Barclays UK, The Co-operative Bank, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group (including Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands), Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group (including RBS and Ulster brands), Santander UK, TSB and Virgin Money (formerly Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank)¹¹. Each group name there covers brands that may look separate to a customer. NatWest Group's brands include RBS and Ulster; HSBC UK's include first direct; Virgin Money is the current name for what was formerly Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank.

The FSCS's own guidance is that banks in the same group sharing a licence share protection limits across all the accounts within the banks in that group, rather than having separate limits for each bank⁷. So a customer with a current account at one brand in a group and savings at another brand in the same group has one combined position against one limit.

Some brands do hold their own licences. Starling, Zopa and Revolut each have a banking licence in the UK⁴, so deposits with them are protected in their own right. The question is never how big or how familiar the brand is, but which licence sits behind it. The banks and building societies directory lists providers, and the check in the next section confirms the licence.

Joint accounts: £240,000 across both holders

For a joint account, the limit doubles. The FSCS savings protection limit is £120,000, or £240,000 for joint accounts, per authorised firm⁶. The logic is that two eligible people each bring their own £120,000 entitlement to the account, so the pair together is protected up to £240,000 with that one licensed firm.

The interaction between joint and individual accounts needs care. The FSCS notes that if you have an individual account and a joint account within the same banking group, the £120,000 compensation limit applies across all these accounts, not to each separate account⁷. Your share of a joint account is added to your own accounts when working out where you stand against the limit. A couple with £200,000 in a joint account and £50,000 in one partner's sole account, all with brands sharing one licence, has £250,000 against £240,000 of cover, leaving £10,000 unprotected.

In practice, the way to think about it is per person, per licence. Each eligible person gets £120,000 of protection with each licensed firm. A joint account draws on both people's entitlements. Two people can protect more money together than either can alone, but only if they count their holdings with each licence correctly, including every brand that shares it.

Temporary high balances: up to £1.4 million for six months

Large sums that pass through an account for a short period get extra cover. The FSCS protects certain qualifying temporary high balances of up to £1.4 million for six months from when the amount was first deposited³. The Bank of England explains that this temporary protection applies above the £120,000 limit for certain types of deposits classified as temporary high balances, and that it will be up to £1.4 million in most cases, with no limit for some temporary high balances linked to particular circumstances⁹. Qualifying examples include money from the sale of a house¹³, and MoneyHelper notes the FSCS can compensate up to £1.4 million if the account was credited in the last six months¹⁴.

The cover is time-limited and event-driven. It exists because a house sale, an inheritance or a redundancy payment can briefly put a balance far above £120,000 through no fault of the customer, and the standard limit would leave most of it exposed. Six months is intended to be enough time to move the money into protected accounts, pay a deposit on a home, or otherwise reduce the balance.

Temporary high balance cover runs from the deposit and drops back to the standard limit after six months.

One figure in the FSCS's own material differs: its claims information states that for temporary balances it covers up to £1m for up to six months¹⁶. The figure given in its scheme rules and by the Bank of England is £1.4 million in most cases³. Where a balance above £120,000 is expected to sit for longer than six months, the protection reverts to the standard limit, and moving the excess to separately licensed firms restores full cover.

How to check which licence a brand uses

The FSCS provides a free online protection check where you enter your provider and see whether your money is protected and how the limit applies⁷. That check is the quickest way to answer the question this page is about: it shows whether the brand you searched is part of a group sharing a licence, and it flags that brands in the same group share protection limits rather than having separate limits⁷.

Beyond the check, the underlying record is the Financial Conduct Authority's register. Searching the FCA register using the provider's firm reference number (FRN) shows the firm's status, and if the status shows "authorised", the FSCS may compensate if the firm fails¹⁷. The register also lists a firm's trading names. The FCA's own list of lenders, for example, shows Santander Consumer (UK) Plc behind a long list of trading names including Santander Consumer Finance, Vauxhall Motor Finance, Volvo Car Financial Services, Hyundai Car Financial Services, Kia Financial Services and others¹⁸. A trading name is a brand, not a separate licensed firm.

Many firms display the FSCS Protected badge. The badge is displayed by UK-authorised banks, building societies, credit unions, Northern Ireland credit unions and certain overseas firms with branches in the UK⁶, and it signals protection up to £120,000 per eligible person, per firm¹⁹. The badge tells you the firm is in the scheme, but it does not tell you which other brands share its licence, so it is a starting point rather than the answer.

If a provider cannot be found in the check at all, the FSCS has a page for firms that could not be located, which explains what to do next²⁰. Before signing up to anything, the FSCS's own advice is to know how much of your money it can protect¹⁶.

Where deposit protection does not apply

Deposit protection has edges, and several of them matter to ordinary customers.

• E-money and payment apps. If an account is not a bank account, it is likely to be a virtual current account covered by e-money rules. Your money is kept safe at a different bank, but it is not FSCS-protected, and if the provider failed you would need to make a claim to the administrator²¹. The FCA's rules require payments firms to hold money received in exchange for issued e-money in a separate safeguarding account¹⁰, which is how your money is kept apart from the firm's own funds.
• Overseas branches. The FSCS can only protect money held by UK branches of authorised banks and building societies²¹. Money held through an overseas branch of a UK bank is outside the scheme, however familiar the brand.
• Some businesses. Most businesses are protected, but authorised financial services firms are not¹⁶. Large businesses are usually excluded from FSCS cover generally, although there are exceptions for deposits and insurance¹⁷. There is no size test for deposit protection, so a small business is not excluded for being small.
• Deposits held through platforms. For deposits held via wealth management companies or online platforms, the FSCS would not be able to confirm eligibility of specific deposits until the point of the firm failing¹⁶.

A separate legal entity changes the arithmetic. If your business is a separate legal entity, such as a limited company or LLP, you could claim up to £120,000 for each account, so a business account and a personal account with the same bank each carry their own limit³. A sole trader, by contrast, is not a separate legal entity, so business and personal money with one licence counts together.

If a bank fails: money back within seven working days

When a bank fails, the process is designed to be automatic. A firm is in default when it cannot pay claims made against it, or is likely to be unable to do so¹⁷. Once the FSCS is satisfied that a firm is unable, or likely to be unable, to pay claims against it, it declares the firm in default, opening the way for the firm's customers to make a claim for compensation²². For straightforward deposits, no claim from you is needed: if a bank or building society fails, the FSCS will automatically pay back customers' money within seven working days in most cases¹⁶. The FSCS's customer information says the same: you'll get your money within seven working days of a bank, building society or a credit union failing⁷, and its leaflets state you'll normally get your money back within seven days²³. For credit unions the wording is seven working days from the date the credit union failed, in most cases²⁴.

Most depositors are paid automatically, without making a claim.

The Bank of England notes these payments will typically be made within seven days of the firm failing, although complex claims may take longer⁹. Anything above the limit is not paid by the FSCS, which is why the licence structure behind your brands matters before a failure, not after one.

The service is free. The FSCS is free to customers and will never ask you to send it money⁸; it is set up by parliament and funded by the financial services industry¹⁶. NS&I makes the same point from the customer side: if your bank goes bust, you'll automatically get your money back, normally up to £120,000 per person²⁵.

For problems with a bank that has not failed, such as a dispute about an account or a payment, the route is different: complain to the firm first, and then the Financial Ombudsman. The FSCS exists for failure; the Ombudsman exists for unfair treatment. Free, impartial help with everyday money questions is available from MoneyHelper, and the wider rules are explained in consumer protection in UK financial services.