Friday, October 24th, 2008
British savers have rushed to withdraw money from foreign banks and many more are planning to steer clear of them in the wake of the Icelandic banking crash. British banking brands are expected to attract tens of millions in savers’ cash as a result. The irony however is that the top ‘British’ brand on interest rates, Bradford & Bingley, is not technically British following its recent acquisition by Spanish bank Santander.
It must be said however that Indian own ICICI and Nigerian own FBN are fully covered up to £50,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and do not operate under a foreign passport compensation system like Dutch bank ING Direct or the Turkish Akbank (or even the UK branch of the fallen Icelandic banks).
Tags: FBN, Financial Services Compensation Scheme, foreign banks, foreign passport compensation system, FSCS, icici, Savings
Posted in Abbey, Banking, Savings | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
New banks from foreign shores are tempting savers with top rates of interest on internet accounts. Kaupthing Edge is owned by Icelandic Bank Kaupthing and its UK subsidiary Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. ICICI Bank UK, a subsidiary of the huge Indian ICICI Bank, operates in 18 countries and has 24m customers worldwide. FBN (UK) Ltd, whose account, under the brand name FirstSave, is also in the best buy tables, is a subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria. With all three banks the money in your savings account always stays in the UK and is invested mainly in cash and short-term bonds - or near cash - to finance the bank’s UK business. Your money will not end up in Nigeria, India or Iceland. Given the distinctly dodgy reputation of some Nigerian operations - it is the home of internet fraud and corruption is rife - this should provide reassurance to anyone considering FBN’s account. Savings in any of these three banks are covered by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If any of these banks go bust then you can claim up to £35,000 per person per bank as they are all fully authorised by the FSA.
Tags: FBN, FBN Bank, FSA, HiSave, Icelandic, icici, Kaupthing, Kaupthing Edge
Posted in Banking, Consumer, Investments, Personal Finance, Savings | No Comments »
