Icesave customers will soon be able to access their savings.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will launch “an accelerated process” in ten days time, which will give thousands of British Icesave customers their money back.

British savers with the Icelandic bank Icesave will be able to access their previously frozen funds through an accelerated FSCS process. The move comes two weeks after Icesave was declared in default by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The FSCS has been working in close conjunction with the FSA and HM Treasury to achieve the best possible result for customers of Icesave. Together, they have created an electronic system which is expected to result in quicker payments and less inconvenience overall.

The process will allow Icesave customers to electronically transfer their money into another bank account. The FSCS will contact customers to let them know what steps they need to follow and also, to ease the transfers, there will be no forms to fill in.

Loretta Minghella, Chief Executive of the FSCS, said: “We have been working hard to establish a way of compensating retail depositors of Icesave without the need for a paper-based application process. We will be contacting retail depositors to tell them how the transfer process will work and when they can access the system. The automated payment process is expected to be in place in ten days time and the first payments are scheduled to start in the second week of November.”

The FSCS has already stepped in to help more than 2.7 million UK consumers as a result of recent problems at Bradford and Bingley, Heritable and Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander.