On the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Icelandic bank Icesave, the FSCS has revealed it has paid out just over £4.5bn in compensation to 228,516 customers.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has also revealed that the average pay-out to Icesave customers was £15,215.53. The FSCS says it used an innovative online payment process to compensate the overwhelming majority of Icesave customers by early December 2008.
The relatively small number of people that did not complete the process by the 30 December 2008 deadline were sent paper application forms.
FSCS has also disclosed that:
• The highest pay-out was £2,083,944.62 and the lowest was 1p.
• There were 14,273 payments over £50,000. The average pay-out over this amount was £100,022.51.
• There were 36,687 payments of below £1,000.
• The first batch of Icesave customers received their compensation on Thursday 6 November 2008 and 78% of accounts received their compensation within a month of these first payments being made (232,123 of 296,465 accounts).
• The final payment to an Icesave customer was made on 18 May 2012, 1,318 days after the failure. Those savers with a fixed rate account received their money, with interest, on its maturation.
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Mark Neale, chief executive of the FSCS, said: "For many people, the collapse of Icesave was the moment at which the credit crunch became very real. The experience of Icesave customers proves that when people needed help, FSCS was there.
"However our research continues to show a lack of understanding and knowledge about the protection we provide. We want to reassure the vast majority of people that their money and savings are safe, and warn those who unwittingly put their money at risk."
Since Icesave's failure the protection rules for UK authorised banks, building societies and credit unions have been improved and simplified so that savers are protected up to £85,000, rather than the previous limit of £50,000. Pay-outs are also no longer being offset against any loans and mortgages held with the same bank or building society and the majority of people will now get their money back within seven days and 20 days for more complex cases.