Figures checked on 24 September 2026
A UK broker has to keep your investments and cash apart from its own. Your shares are usually held in a nominee account, and your uninvested cash is client money, held in bank accounts separate from the firm's. That ring-fencing means that if the broker fails, your assets aren't the firm's to pay its creditors. An administrator returns them, which can take months, and some of the cost of doing so can be charged against the assets being returned.
The FSCS — the Financial Services Compensation Scheme — steps in when something is missing: if the firm's records or safeguarding failed, it can pay up to £85,000 per person, per firm. It doesn't cover investments falling in value, and brands run by the same authorised firm share one limit; the FCA register shows which firm is behind a brand. Cash is different again: if the bank holding the client money fails, your share may be protected as a deposit, where the limit has been £120,000 per person, per banking group since 1 December 2025. The app doesn't hold any money or investments, so a broker failure wouldn't show up in its figures.
FSCS covers what's missing, not what's fallen in value.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.