An integrated battery charger protection circuit incorporates a charge control power FET for series connection in the battery load current path from a DC supply input terminal to a controlled DC output terminal. The circuit has a gate drive input terminal connected to the gate of the charge control power FET and further includes protective circuitry adapted to disable the DC output terminal in a fault condition detected within the integrated circuit. The controlled DC output terminal and the gate drive input terminal are connectable to the external charge control host circuit the same way as corresponding terminals of a discrete power FET, in particular of p-channel type.