Around 1.7million people have moved their savings between different providers since the Northern Rock crisis began, according to research released yesterday. Daily Telegraph
About 50,000 people have transferred savings from one bank or building society to another each day since Sept 14, when Northern Rock first said it had agreed emergency funding with the Bank of England, according to financial website MoneyExpert.com.
The group said the main reason people gave for moving their money was to cut the risk of having all their cash in one place, after the problems at Northern Rock increased awareness of the level of compensation available if a financial institution went under.
About 44% of people surveyed said they split their money between different financial institutions, while 28% said they now no longer held more than £35,000 with any one group.
One in five people also said they had shifted their money to a major high street bank as they thought these represented less risk.