As Plum is not a bank, we don't hold money from your Cash ISA ourselves. Your money for Cash ISA is held either with our banking partner, Citibank, or in the Qualifying Money Market Fund (QMMF) we use.
Funds held in Plum’s Cash ISA are protected under the FCA’s CASS rules, also known as “Safe Custody” when it comes to assets. These rules mean the money you put into Plum’s Cash ISA is also placed into a separate, segregated account.
Therefore, in the unlikely instance where Plum, the fund manager or the custodian (which is the institution responsible for holding and protecting your assets) that we use goes insolvent, we understand your funds would be returned to you, unless the fund manager or custodian had breached Safe Custody rules fraudulently. In that scenario, qualifying Cash ISA balances would be returned through the provisions of FSCS protection up to the limit of £85,000.
Whether the funds are held with Citibank or in the QMMF managed by our third-party partner, Blackrock, FSCS protection may also apply subject to the above mentioned “Safe Custody” protection having first been considered.
Citibank
Citibank is one of our banking partners in which the money of your Cash ISA may be held in order to earn interest. Money held in Citibank is fully protected by FSCS, for up to £85,000 per person in case something happens with Plum.
If you've got existing savings with Citibank, please note the FSCS caps protection up to £85,000 per person, per financial institution, so you may want to check whether any additional savings with them would mean you exceed the protection limit.
You can find Citibank in the FSCS page, under the entry Citibank, N.A. (FRN: 124704).
QMMF
FSCS protections don't just apply to cash deposits. In some circumstances, as described above, they apply to certain types of investments too, like with a QMMF. Your money may qualify for FSCS protection if the investment company that holds the money is fully regulated by the FCA. In our case, the investment company is Saveable Limited, which is a subsidiary of Plum. Saveable Limited holds all of our investment products and is fully regulated by the FCA (FRN: 739214). For more details, you can check our FCA register HERE.
In fact, when a financial company collects money from customers, it has to hold these funds either with:
A Central Bank (like the Bank of England);
A Credit Institution (this is a Bank to you or I);
A Bank authorized in a third country;
or in a Qualifying Money Market Fund (QMMF).
QMMFs are then just one of just four places permitted to hold Client Money. QMMFs are commonly used by pension providers, insurance funds, and other financial institutions for holding large amounts of customers’ cash. As of January 2024, over $6 trillion is held in money market funds in the US and over €1.1 trillion in Europe. The QMMF we use for Cash ISA invests in high-quality assets, such as those issued or guaranteed by the UK Government, and are designed to preserve the value of your funds.