As far as I know the guarantee is still in place ,my mother has...

As far as I know the guarantee is still in place ,my mother has spread her cash around a couple of banks so I guess she would be safe.

A global down turn hits the banks because of leverage but for those with out any debt it is still hard because of the investment mood,the banks are always a target for people when they lose their money but you hear nothing when they are making money,we all have to take responsibility for our actions including the banks and mortgage brokers who should be giving good advice and looking for a life time hook up with families and their finances rather than a quick buck.
I have a cousin who was retrenched from a leading bank ,he set up a company giving finance advice and many of his customers from the bank contacted him and started to deal with him,they were mostly older clients who wanted to deal with someone they felt they could trust and knew and were frightened off by the new younger finance advisors the bank brought in who had little experience but could produce good graphs and little else.