Saving and investing

Compensation and guarantee schemes

Compensation schemes protect your money if a regulated firm covered by one of the schemes goes out of business. You can get more information, including key dates for different schemes, at the links below.

Deposit Guarantee Scheme - if your deposits with a bank are €100,000 or less
Government Guarantee - if your deposits with a bank are more than €100,000
Investor Compensation Scheme - protection for investments in an authorised investment firm

If you have savings with An Post, your savings are State guaranteed.

When can you make a claim?

You can make a claim if your bank, building society or credit union has been declared insolvent or a liquidator declares that it cannot repay its deposits.  Any loans you have with your institution may be deducted from the balance of your deposit if you were to make a claim under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme

Some banks that operate in Ireland are regulated in their home country and operate here under EU rules. These banks include Northern Rock (which is covered by both the UK Scheme for the first £50,000 and the Irish Deposit Guarantee Scheme for the remainder, up to a maximum of €100,000) and Rabobank, which is part of the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Scheme

If you have an account with a bank that operates in Ireland but is regulated in its 'home country', you would usually make a claim under a compensation scheme in place in the country where the institution is regulated. Some of the deposit schemes relevant to Irish consumers are:

  • UK scheme for Investec Bank plc, Leeds Building Society, Nationwide Building Society and Northern Rock.
  • Dutch scheme for Rabodirect.
  • Danish scheme for Danske Bank (trading as National Irish Bank)

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