Savings still safe, most Brits believe

Despite all the recent negative news, most Britons still have faith that their savings will remain safe

If the economic doom and gloom mongers were to have it their way, millions of Britons would right now be queuing up all night outside of their banks and demanding that they be given their life savings to safely tuck under their mattresses.

Of course, to a degree, this has already happened, with the nation's television screens only recently showing images of lines of equally concerned and angry Northern Rock customers snaking out of numerous branches of the troubled lender, which, along with Bradford & Bingley, has now been nationalised.

However, just as how banking bosses have made millions over recent years while normal customers have seen only fair to moderate returns on their savings accounts, so too does it seem that the massive levels of worry currently being seen at the top of the chain have trickled down to become merely slight concerns for the man on the street.

Indeed, of those Brits polled by Adfero, just 24 per cent said that they were concerned that they could stand to lose out financially should the global banking crisis escalate further.

In contrast, a massive 76 per cent shrugged off such a suggestion, a figure which suggests that Gordon Brown's pledge to guarantee personal savings up to £50,000 has served to boost the confidence of the populace.

Under the government's new plans, the amount people would stand to receive compensation for should their bank go under has been hiked up from £35,000, proof if it were needed that the threat is far from over.

However, despite the general public confidence in the stability of the banking system and the security of individual savings accounts, some have warned that more needs to be done to ensure that the average saver is not hit by a top-down collapse.

According to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, we are all now firmly "in the eye of an economic storm".

"The financial system urgently requires some breathing space," he argued.

"British people need total reassurance that their savings are safe."

While this may well be the case, for now this is a matter for banking leaders and politicians to debate, with individual Brits best off focusing their energy of getting the best out of the money that they do have.

In comparison to property, which was once widely touted as the ultimate investment, many experts are now forcefully arguing that money in the bank is the best way to not only survive the current downturn, but also to come out of it quids in.

Though the prospect of a major bank going bankrupt and millions of its customers losing their life savings may well be daunting to say the least, it is nevertheless a remote one, particularly now that the UK government has shown that it is committed to guaranteeing the finances of everyday Brits.

Certainly, even the worst savings account is a safer bet than hording money at home, and with banks offering increasingly attractive rates in a bid to bring in new customers and shore up their own finances, it could be argued that there has never been a better time to be a savvy saver.