Is money held in Revolut FSCS protected in the UK?

It depends on which Revolut entity holds your account. Money in a Revolut bank account — held by Revolut Bank UK Ltd — is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £120,000 per eligible person. Money still sitting in an older Revolut e-money account — held by Revolut Ltd — is not FSCS protected at all; it is "safeguarded", which is a weaker and slower form of protection. Revolut has been moving UK customers from the second to the first in phased batches since March 2026, so the only reliable answer for your own money is the entity name shown in your app today.

Why does Revolut have two different protections?

For most of its time in the UK, Revolut was not a bank. It operated as an electronic money institution (Revolut Ltd), authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations. An e-money institution can issue e-money, hold balances and move payments, but it cannot take deposits — and because it does not take deposits, its customers are outside FSCS deposit protection.

That changed on 11 March 2026, when the Prudential Regulation Authority lifted the restrictions on Revolut's banking licence and approved the launch of Revolut Bank UK Ltd. The PRA had granted a restricted licence in July 2024, followed by the "mobilisation" period that every newly authorised UK bank goes through before it can operate without limits.

It is worth keeping the bodies straight:

• The PRA (part of the Bank of England) authorises banks and supervises their financial soundness.
• The FCA regulates conduct, and separately authorises e-money and payment institutions.
• The FSCS is an independent statutory scheme that pays compensation when an authorised firm fails. It is not the regulator.

Only the bank entity can hold FSCS-protected deposits.

How do I check which entity holds my account?

Revolut's own guidance is specific: go to the 'Details' section under your balance on the app home screen, which shows which entity your account is registered to. Revolut also says it notifies customers by email and push notification two months, one month and one week before a move, and again once the account has moved.

• Shows Revolut Bank UK Ltd → it is a bank account, and eligible deposits are FSCS protected.
• Shows Revolut Ltd → it is still an e-money account, and safeguarding applies rather than the FSCS.

You can cross-check both entities yourself on the FCA's Financial Services Register, which shows what each firm is authorised to do, and use the FSCS's own protection checker.

Do not rely on the date. Revolut said in March 2026 that existing customers would be transferred in several phased batches over a number of weeks, with at least two months' notice, and that the whole process was expected to take a few months. It also said that customers signing up from 11 March 2026 onwards might still be onboarded onto an e-money account with Revolut Ltd while the bank was ramped up. Migration in batches means two people can ask this question on the same day and get different answers.

What is the practical difference between FSCS protection and safeguarding?

Both are meant to get your money back if the firm fails, but they are not equivalent.

	FSCS deposit protection (Revolut Bank UK Ltd)	Safeguarding (Revolut Ltd, e-money)
Who returns the money	The FSCS, an independent statutory scheme funded by industry levies	The administrator or liquidator of the failed firm, from segregated funds
Limit	£120,000 per eligible person, per authorised firm	No set limit — you claim your share of the safeguarded pool
How you claim	For deposits, the FSCS compensates eligible customers automatically	You are a creditor in an insolvency process
How much you get	The full amount up to the limit	The FCA warns you should get most of it back, but it may take time and may not be the full amount, because the administrator's costs can be taken out first

The distinction the FCA draws is the one that matters: money held with a non-bank payment provider is not protected by the FSCS, and safeguarding — segregating customer funds in a separate account with a bank, or insuring them — is what stands in its place.

Which Revolut balances count towards the £120,000?

Once an account has moved to Revolut Bank UK Ltd, Revolut lists the following as balances that count towards its FSCS protection (checked 07/09/2026 — Revolut publishes an FSCS information sheet and exclusions list in the app, which is the authoritative version for your own account):

• Current account balances, including GBP and non-GBP sub-accounts
• Pockets balances, and Group Pockets where you are the person who opened it
• Kids & Teens accounts, where you are the main parent
• Revolut Pro account balances, GBP and non-GBP sub-accounts
• Joint accounts, with the balance split 50-50 so each holder is eligible up to the full limit

As with every FSCS limit, this is per authorised firm, not per product. Holding five of the balances above does not give you five lots of cover — they share one £120,000. The same trap catches people with high-street brands that share a banking licence, which is covered in how much of my money is FSCS protected if my bank fails.

What is outside Revolut Bank's FSCS protection?

Revolut states that products not on that list — including Crypto, Commodities and Stocks — are provided by different entities and do not fall under Revolut Bank UK Ltd's FSCS protection. That is the normal position across UK providers: deposit protection covers deposits, not the market value of an investment, which can fall without anybody failing.

Savings accounts are a separate case worth understanding. Revolut says money in Savings is deposited with third-party partner banks and is protected up to £120,000 per eligible depositor, per partner bank — the cover comes from the partner bank's protection, and Savings are provided by Revolut Ltd together with that bank rather than by Revolut Bank. Two practical consequences: the partner bank's name matters (Revolut publishes it in the app and in the Savings terms), and if you already hold money with that same bank, the two balances share a single limit. If you are also weighing up the headline rate on such an account, note that the number to compare is the AER, as explained in AER vs gross interest rate.

Is this the same protection as a scam refund?

No. FSCS protection answers one question only: what happens if the firm itself fails. Being defrauded is governed by a separate regime — the authorised push payment reimbursement rules, covered in will my bank refund me if I was tricked into sending money. Nor does FSCS cover mean an account can be moved through the Current Account Switch Service, which has its own participant list.

In short

Check the entity, not the brand. Open the 'Details' section in the Revolut app: if it says Revolut Bank UK Ltd, eligible deposits are FSCS protected up to £120,000 per person; if it still says Revolut Ltd, you are holding e-money that is safeguarded but not FSCS protected. If you keep a large balance there — particularly above £120,000, or money from a house sale or inheritance — confirm the entity before relying on the cover, and treat Savings, crypto and investment balances as separate arrangements with separate protections. Product lists change as the migration completes, so verify against Revolut's FSCS information sheet and the FCA register on the day it matters.

This article explains how the protections work. It is not financial advice, and Banking Explained does not recommend particular products.