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Keep Two Bank Accounts To Beat Cyber Attacks, Says Bank of England Adviser (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Everyone should keep two bank accounts so they can still access their money if one bank is hit by a cyber attack, a former Bank of England adviser has warned. "I'd certainly rather have two [accounts] in case my bank was attacked. I would want to know I could still get money out of the other one," banking expert Peter Hahn said in an interview with BBC's Today, ahead of the Bank of England's latest Financial Stability Report. According to the report, cyber risk is one of the five greatest dangers facing the UK banking industry.

7 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According to the report, cyber risk is one of the five greatest dangers facing the UK banking industry.

    The others:

    1) Bankers
    2) Banking
    3) Lying
    4) Cheating

    Those aren't dangers - they're just business as usual

  2. Re:Make it three by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This advice is actually supposed to protect the banks, not the customers. If a bank is hacked it has to repay any losses you suffer. Say a business has its account locked and can't pay wages, or someone moving house can't pay for their new home and the sale falls through. The knock-on financial losses could be huge. Hundreds of employees having regular payments fail, black marks on their credit records that they have to get removed, a whole chain of house buyers falling apart, fees for late payments etc.

    So if you have two accounts you can use the other one to make payments, thus lessening the bank's financial liability.

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  3. Re:standard by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The US has FDIC which works simularly where in case of robbery or bank closing up to 100k USD will be covered.
    Now most people I know including multi-millionaires don't keep over 100k in the bank. The bank is only good for holding money for high liquidity.

    But for most people having multiple accounts will not make their money any safer as it will just be insured.

    However on the government/insurers point of view having multiple bank accounts means less of a payout on the odd bank collapse.

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  4. The five big fears of banks by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. Getting bank regulation that deserves that name
    2. Not getting bailed out next time the gambling backfires
    3. A country being able to pay back its debts and thus free to make a move on them
    4. People catching on how things worked out for Iceland and Iceland becoming a role model
    5. Anyone with some clout declaring "this bank is bankrupt". Because that can bankrupt any bank. No matter the size.

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  5. Re:standard by amberdalan · · Score: 3, Informative

    The standard insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category.

  6. Re:Duel Bank accounts (business) by asylumx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Duel Bank accounts

    Is that a typo and you actually meant "Dual" or are you actually suggesting we have banks fight each other to the death? Because I'm OK with either.

  7. Let them eat cake by devnullkac · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Typical advice from an out-of-touch banker. This is impractical for those most at risk of serious consequences if their bank closes for a few days. It's not like getting an extra hard drive and copying your money to the backup bank. You have to split your limited assets and make sure you meet the minimum requirements of two institutions. And heaven help you if each requires you to have direct deposit in order to avoid monthly fees.

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