National deposit guarantee schemes

Question

I am just checking this FinTech startup called Raisin (previously SavingGlobal) where they advertise that you can make deposits on banks across Europe. They say, that each deposit is 100% covered by national deposit guarantee schemes. But if I make a decision to make a deposit through their platform to a bank in Italy, is my deposit really covered, even though I do not have Italian citizenship?

Answer 1

The simple answer is: Yes, in the European Union, individual deposits in banks are protected up to €100,000 per person per bank even if you are depositing through an intermediary. You can find out more from the EU FAQ on the subject. as well as the pages of the regulators of each country (normally linked from each bank and also linked from raisin dot com).

The scheme raisin dot com is proposing should be protected too since they say that they keep your money in an account at Keytrade Bank in Belgium. You should check the two last answers in their "how it works" page

There are some special issues you should know about though.

• if a bank were to fail you may have to wait up to 20 days to get your money - this will fall to 7 days only in 2024
• sometimes, in some countries the same bank has two different names e.g. as part of a group - you should check the name
• there is an actual deposit insurance scheme in each country which could theoretically run out of money - normally the government would step in, but if they didn't then you only get back proportionally
• some banks (e.g. in Germany) have additional protection which may go beyond this.
• if you have two deposits in the same bank then the coverage is only €100,000 total.

I think that the thing I'd worry more about is the reliability of the company. Is it really doing what it says it does? I hadn't heard of it before. However, there are real articles in European newspapers about raisin dot com so it seems legitimate.