Expats are advised to do their homework before choosing a bank or building society.

If there is one lesson to be learned from the Icelandic bank collapses, it is that expatriate savers can no longer rely on the guarantees offered by financial groups to their offshore subsidiaries. If the parent group fails then the guarantee is virtually worthless.

Guernsey set up a bank deposit compensation scheme last November but it excluded victims of the Landsbanki Guernsey collapse.09-Apr-09.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/5131297/Strong-parent-groups-give-savers-protection.html