Tree Card probably have an e-money licence. They’ll have a backing bank that actually holds the money, and probably another company that manages the card. They

Tree Card probably have an e-money licence. They’ll have a backing bank that actually holds the money, and probably another company that manages the card. They’ll be required to keep that money in a custodial account with their backing bank, so Tree Card will have no ability to operate a fractional reserve, or use their clients money for operating purposes. Their banking bank is probably required to make sure they’re following the rules. If Tree Card go bust, then your money will be safe (Tree Card can’t really touch it), it it’ll probably take some time to recover it from their backing bank. If the backing bank goes bust, then I’m not sure what happens. But I think the custodial status of the account should offer some protections. But again it’ll take a while to get your money back. Oh, and finally, there e-money license probably makes it very difficult to explain this. If they said something like “your money is as well protected as in an FSCS (U.K. government bank account protection) protected account” they would probably get told off by the regulator, because the protection isn’t the same.