Domestic government bonds of stable countries are usually treated as "zero risk", even though they still have a small risk. A savings account with "zero risk" w

Domestic government bonds of stable countries are usually treated as "zero risk", even though they still have a small risk. A savings account with "zero risk" would be one that has as much risk as a "zero risk" bond, usually by both being backed by these bonds, and having a government-backed insurance scheme (if the bank fails, the account holders are still paid). (It might help if you think of risk as a scale, and the "zero" as an arbitrary point in that scale. It's useful to set the "zero" to "the lowest risk you can actually get", even though there might be something with an even lower risk.)