NS&I

National Savings and Investments (NS&I), formerly called the National Savings Bank, is a state owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. It is an executive agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The aim of NS&I is to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purposes of funding the government’s public sector borrowing requirement (ie the funds in excess of taxation that the government requires to fund its activities). NS&I is based in Blackpool, Lancashire. NS&I attracts savers through offering saving products with tax free elements, and a 100% guarantee from HM Treasury over any deposits. NS&I also administers the Premium Bonds scheme. The Rt. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Tower, Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in England, on the coast of the Irish Sea. ... Jump to: navigation, search Lancashire (archaically, the County of Lancaster) is a county palatine of England, lying on the Irish Sea. ...

Role

National Savings and Investments was founded in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank. The aim of the bank was to allow workers to save, and to provide the government will access to debt funding. The bank's name later changed to National Savings Bank, and later to National Savings and Investments. 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

NS&I manages around £66 billion in savings, 10% of the UK savings market. This accounts for 17% of the UK's national debt. As funds from NS&I are a relatively cheap source of government borrowing, the bank sets interest rates both to attract savers and provide low cost finance for the government. Government debt (public debt, national debt) is money owed by government, at any level (central government, federal government, national government, municipal government, local government, regional government). ...

Products

NS&I offer a wide range of products. The most popular is the Premium Bond. This is a bond of value £1 which is purchased by a holder and retained for an unlimited period of time. The holder receives no interest, but instead, each bond is entered into a prize draw announced each month. The top prize is now £1 million, with several tranches of small prizes from £1,000. The prize draw pays out approximately 2-3% of the total value of the fund each year. A computer known as ERNIE selects the winning bonds. Approximately 27 million people in the UK hold premium bonds, around 40% of the population and 8 billion bonds are in issue. Premium Bonds can be redeemed for face value at any time, a minimum holding of £100 and maximum holding of £30,000 is in place. All prizes are tax free. Jump to: navigation, search A Premium Bond is a bond issued by the United Kingdom governments National Savings & Investments scheme. ...

Other products include tax free saving certificates, and tax free savings accounts.

A unique selling point of NS&I products is a 100% guarantee over any deposits placed by the Treasury.

External link

• National Savings and Investments Homepage

Commercial banks in the United Kingdom

Abbey | Airdrie Savings Bank | Alliance & Leicester | Bank of Scotland | Barclays | Birmingham Midshires | Bradford and Bingley | Bristol and West | Cahoot | Cheltenham and Gloucester | Clydesdale | Co-operative Bank | Coutts & Co | Egg | First Direct | First Trust Bank | Halifax | HBOS | HSBC | Intelligent Finance | Julian Hodge Bank | Lloyds TSB | National Savings and Investments | NatWest | Northern Bank | Northern Rock | Royal Bank of Scotland | Sainsbury's Bank | Standard Chartered Bank | Tesco Personal Finance | The Woolwich | Ulster Bank | Yorkshire Bank