What FSCS does

FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme Limited) is the UK's statutory compensation fund of last resort, established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and operational since 2001. It pays compensation to eligible consumers when UK-authorised financial services firms fail and cannot meet claims. FSCS covers deposits (up to £120,000 per person from December 2025, up from £85,000), pensions, investments, insurance, mortgages, payment protection insurance, debt management, and funeral plans. The service is free at the point of use for consumers, who access it via an online claims portal and contact centre.

FSCS is fully funded by an annual levy on FCA- and PRA-authorised financial services firms, split across nine funding classes (Deposits, Investment Provision, Life and Pensions Provision, Insurance Provision/Distribution, Home Finance Intermediation, Debt Management, Funeral Plans, and Life Distribution and Investment Intermediation), with a retail pool providing cross-subsidisation when class limits are breached. Annual levies have ranged significantly, with the 2026/27 levy set at £247 million and £267 million expected in compensation payments.

Underlying the claims process is a technology platform built on Azure cloud infrastructure, featuring a Resolution Data Lake (RDL) that uses machine learning to search unstructured data from failed firms, plus AI document processing for OCR, handwriting recognition, and table extraction. FSCS is registered as a limited company in England and Wales (No. 3943048) for administrative purposes but has no equity shareholders, no parent company, and no VC/PE investors. Leadership includes Interim Chief Executive Martyn Beauchamp, CFO Fiona Kidy, and Chief Data, Intelligence and Technology Officer Sabah Carter.

Name

FSCS

Legal name

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Website

https://fscs.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

FSCS is the UK's statutory compensation scheme that pays free compensation to eligible consumers when authorised financial services firms fail, covering deposits, pensions, investments, insurance, and mortgages. It is funded entirely by annual levies on FCA/PRA-authorised firms and operates as a government-established independent body.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Annual Levy from Financial Services Firms: FSCS is fully funded by an annual levy paid by firms authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The levy funds compensation costs and management expenses. The levy is split into nine funding classes: Debt Management, Deposits, Funeral Plans, General Insurance Provision, General Insurance Distribution, Home Finance Intermediation, Investment Provision, Life and Pensions Provision, and Life Distribution and Investment Intermediation. There is also a retail pool for cross-subsidisation when class limits are breached.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

FSCS is the UK's statutory compensation fund of last resort, paying compensation to eligible customers when FCA- or PRA-authorised financial services firms fail and cannot meet claims. It provides free protection across deposits (up to £120,000 per person from December 2025), pensions, investments, insurance, mortgages, PPI, debt management, and funeral plans. The service is delivered directly to consumers through an online claims portal, contact centre, and proactive outreach, funded entirely by annual levies on authorised financial firms.

Product overview

FSCS is the UK's statutory compensation scheme for financial services customers. It provides a unified protection service across multiple financial product categories including deposits (up to £120,000), pensions, investments, insurance, mortgages, PPI, debt management, and funeral plans. FSCS offers a single claims process through its website where customers can check protection eligibility and submit claims directly. The organization also operates technology platforms including a resolution data lake for processing claims data and a core claims processing system for end-to-end assessment and payment.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Deposit Protection

Quantifiable outcome

• £20.9 billion paid in compensation during 2008 banking crisis, with £20 billion recovered from failed banks
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature3 records

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Investor Compensation Company (ICCL): Ireland's statutory investor compensation scheme, set up under EU investor compensation schemes directive. Operates a near-identical model to FSCS — levies on investment firms, free consumer claims, statutory mandate — making it the closest like-for-like analogue in a comparable jurisdiction.
• Financial Services Compensation Scheme (Gibraltar FSCS): Gibraltar's statutory compensation scheme operating under the same UK regulatory heritage as FSCS. Directly comparable in mandate, funding model (levies on authorised firms), and product coverage.
• Fondo de Garantía de Inversiones (FOGAIN): Spain's statutory investor compensation scheme under the EU harmonised framework. Comparable to FSCS in function — pooling levies from investment firms to compensate retail customers when authorised firms fail.

Broad incumbents

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): The US deposit insurance and bank supervision agency. Far larger and broader in scope than FSCS, but operates the same fundamental deposit-protection mandate, with a similar dual role of consumer protection and financial-stability backstop.
• Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC): Canada's federal deposit insurance corporation covering banks, trust and loan companies. Operates a comparable deposit-protection mandate funded by member-firm premiums, with similar claims-handling and public-confidence functions.
• Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC): Korea's statutory deposit insurance agency covering banks and securities companies, with an additional crisis-resolution mandate. Comparable functional role and levy-based funding model to FSCS.
• Hong Kong Deposit Protection Board: Operates Hong Kong's Deposit Protection Scheme with statutory levy-based funding and a defined per-depositor cap. Functions as FSCS's Asian counterpart in deposit protection and consumer confidence.

Regional players

• Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation (SDIC): Singapore's statutory deposit insurance scheme under the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Smaller scope than FSCS but highly analogous in levy funding, depositor-protection mandate, and statutory underpinning.

Others

• Financial Ombudsman Service (UK): UK statutory dispute-resolution body for financial services complaints. Distinct function from FSCS (adjudication vs. compensation), but operates as a complementary consumer-protection arm in the same regulatory ecosystem and handles disputes involving FSCS decisions.
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA): The UK conduct regulator whose authorised firms fund the FSCS levy. As the source of firm authorisations, investigations, and restrictions that ultimately drive FSCS claims, the FCA is FSCS's most important upstream institutional relationship.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FSCSNews
• YouTubefscs.org.uk/news/podcasts
• Facebookfacebook.com/financialservicescompensationscheme
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/financial-services-compensation-scheme
• Instagraminstagram.com/fscs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about FSCS