NB! The protections mentioned in this article do not cover poor investment performance. It’s important to always remember that markets may go up or down, so you should never invest more than you can afford to lose.

How does Lightyear protect my Cash and Investments?

Trusting us with your investments is not something we take for granted. Lightyear UK Ltd is an FCA-authorised and regulated investment firm and as such is bound by strict regulatory obligations in how we handle and protect your assets:

1. You are always the beneficial owner of your cash. Your uninvested cash is held in ringfenced accounts and deposited with a UK bank and Qualifying Money Market Funds (QMMF) under legally binding agreements that confirm this money belongs to you, not Lightyear. The institutions where we hold uninvested customer funds are NatWest bank in the UK and BlackRock Qualifying Money Market Funds rated AAA/mmf by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.
2. Lightyear never uses customers' money or investments to cover its own needs, which also means that, unlike banks, for example, we do not lend customers' money out to third parties.
3. You are the beneficial owners of all your investments on Lightyear — your assets are held in separate accounts from Lightyear assets, which you can read more about in our article Who is the owner of the securities I buy?.
4. Therefore, all customers' assets are inaccessible by our creditors and they would be returned to you in the unlikely event of Lightyear's insolvency.
5. The UK bank we use is covered by FSCS and in the event they failed we could claim up to £85,000 on your behalf. Please be aware this is the total you can claim in any banking institution so if you held personal accounts or money with other platforms in the same banking group, this may impact the amount you get back through Lightyear.

Do UK users benefit from Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection?

Yes, all UK customers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

• This means that if Lightyear goes out of business and there is a shortfall in the funds we are holding for you, you may be able to claim for losses up to the value of £85,000 through FSCS.
• FSCS does not cover losses due to poor investment performance.

What is a Qualifying Money Market Fund

• Qualifying money market funds (QMMFs) are a type of mutual fund that invests only in highly liquid, short-term debt from the likes of governments and financial institutions. These funds offer high liquidity with a very low level of risk and EU/UK regulations allow for brokerages to hold customer money in them.
• A QMMF must meet specified, higher regulatory standards for quality and liquidity than other money market funds. We carefully review and monitor any QMMF we use to ensure that it is stable, liquid and continues to comply with the requirements of a QMMF, and only work with large, reputable fund managers.
• In addition to offering protection via diversification, QMMFs provide a return which we pass on to customers in the form of interest payments on uninvested cash you hold in your Lightyear account. To opt out from keeping your money in a QMMF, you can opt out of interest in the app.
• Deposit guarantee schemes are not relevant to QMMFs. The QMMF depositary will hold assets in a segregated account which should therefore be available in the event of their failure. However, if there is a shortfall in the value of assets, FSCS does not apply and compensation is only available if this shortfall is due to fraud, negligence or failure of the depositary to comply with their regulatory obligations.