Here in Australia there are four major banks, which effectively gives them a monopoly on the entire banking sector and it's been that way for decades.

All those banks pay a 4.5% dividend and on top of that you also get capital growth on that investment.

Now while this is by no means risk free investing, unlike banks in America that are pretty much unregulated, these Australian banks are heavily regulated.

So for these institutes the term 'safe as a bank' does in fact apply.