All the money you have in your Dodl account is looked after by AJ Bell. They hold your cash in UK-regulated customer bank accounts, which are required to be separate from AJ Bell's company bank accounts and assets. Checks on these accounts are carried out every day, so your money is always accounted for.
To spread the risk, AJ Bell holds your money with multiple banks. If a bank went under, your cash would be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, up to £85,000.
You’ll find more information about the compensation arrangements from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at FSCS.org.uk.
Which banks do you hold cash with?
We hold your cash with a range of carefully selected banks in pooled instant access, notice, and fixed-term deposit accounts. We use multiple banks to reduce your exposure to the risk of any individual bank failing.
Our panel banks are tiered, so that the most creditworthy hold the larger proportions of your cash. Your cash isn’t held in equal proportions across our panel banks, and the amount held varies by the day. That means the result of any FSCS claim would depend on which bank failed, and at which point in time.
These tiers are based on our internal assessment system, which considers several indicators of creditworthiness, including credit ratings and certain capital ratios reported by banks.
You can see the 13 banks from the panel below:
Tier | Bank | Maximum Limit |
1 | Lloyds Bank PLC | 35% |
1 | Bank of Scotland PLC | 35% |
1 | Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets PLC | 35% |
1 | HSBC Bank PLC | 35% |
1 | Barclays Bank PLC | 35% |
1 | Royal Bank of Scotland PLC | 35% |
1 | Santander UK PLC | 35% |
1 | Qatar National Bank | 35% |
1 | Cater Allen Limited | 35% |
1 | NatWest Markets PLC | 35% |
2 | Close Brothers PLC | 15% |
2 | Investec Bank PLC | 15% |
2 | Virgin Money UK PLC | 15% |
Note: All our panel banks are of an “investment-grade” credit rating (BBB- or above with Fitch, and Baa3 or above with Moody’s).
In the event that a bank fails, your claim will be for a share of the cash held in all pooled bank accounts at that bank. If necessary, you may be able to claim via the FSCS.
FSCS rules currently state that an eligible person can claim up to a maximum of £85,000 per bank (or banking licence) if that bank failed. Keep in mind that the £85,000 limit includes any cash holdings you may have under the same bank/banking licence outside of AJ Bell (for instance, in a current or savings account).
How does holding my cash across multiple banks increase my level of FSCS protection?
We continually aim to diversify where we hold your cash to offer you as much FSCS protection as possible in the event that a bank fails. Here is how it works:
If we held all your cash with a single bank, up to £85,000 would be fully protected under the FSCS.
If we held 20% (or one fifth) of your cash with a bank that failed, up to £425,000 would be fully protected by the FSCS (i.e. 5 x £85,000).
Both examples exclude any balances you might hold outside of AJ Bell.
Are you confident that the cash I hold with you is adequately protected?
We take the security of your cash very seriously, and regularly monitor the level of protection we offer. Our ongoing internal assessments show that the vast majority of individual cash holdings are fully covered under the FSCS. We’re satisfied that the current level of diversification of customers’ pooled cash holdings minimises the risk of significant loss.