Company type | Non-ministerial government department of HM Treasury |
---|---|
Industry | Financial Services |
Founded | 1861 |
Headquarters | 16-20 Great Smith Street London, SW1P 3BT |
Key people |
|
Products | Savings and Investments |
Website | nsandi |
National Savings and Investments (NS&I), formerly called the Post Office Savings Bank and National Savings, is a state-owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. It is both a non-ministerial government department [1] and an executive agency of HM Treasury. [2] The aim of NS&I has been to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purpose of funding the government's deficit. NS&I attracts savers through offering savings products with tax-free elements on some products, and a 100% guarantee from HM Treasury on all deposits. As of 2017, approximately 9% of the government's debt is met by funds raised through NS&I, [3] around half of which is from the Premium Bond offering.
National Savings and Investments was founded by the Palmerston government (following a suggestion made by George Chetwynd, a clerk in the Money Order department of the General Post Office) [4] in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank, the world's first postal savings system. The aim of the bank was to allow ordinary workers a facility "to provide for themselves against adversity and ill-health", and to provide the government with access to debt funding. As an example, savings certificates were issued in the First and Second World Wars to help finance the war effort. On 1 June 1957, the Premium Bonds draws were inaugurated, using E.R.N.I.E. – the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment machine (now located in the Science Museum).
National Savings Bank Act 1971 | |
---|---|
Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to the National Savings Bank, with amendments to give effect to recommendations of the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission. |
Citation | 1971 c. 29 |
Territorial extent |
|
Dates | |
Royal assent | 12 May 1971 |
Commencement | 12 June 1971 |
Other legislation | |
Repeals/revokes | |
Amended by | |
Text of the National Savings Bank Act 1971 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. |
In 1969, the bank was transferred from the Post Office to the Treasury. Its name was changed to National Savings Bank, and it gained an independent legal identity under the National Savings Bank Act 1971. [5] Despite its independence, it was used by Government in 1980 to fund a significant proportion of the public sector borrowing requirement. The then Director, Stuart Gilbert was given a target of £2 billion rising to £3.8 billion of the following three years to raise in National Savings - targets that were achieved.
The name was changed again in 2002 to National Savings and Investments. [6]
The previous graphic identity of NS&I, including the NS&I logotype, was created in 2005 by Lloyd Northover, the British design consultancy founded by John Lloyd and Jim Northover. [7] The identity was updated in 2020, however no public information has been released regarding this.
The Post Office Savings Bank initially operated from a room in the General Post Office building on St. Martin's Le Grand in the City of London. [8] By 1864 it had outgrown the space available there, so the Post Office took out a lease on a nearby warehouse at No. 27 St Paul's Churchyard. In the following years the business of the savings bank expanded, and further premises were acquired to the south, linked to the old warehouse by a bridge across Little Carter Lane. [8] In the 1870s, with the lease on these buildings due to expire, work began on a new purpose-built Central Post Office Savings Bank building further to the south in Queen Victoria Street. The building had five floors plus a basement; the public business of the Savings Bank was conducted on the ground floor, and the clerks had their offices on the upper floors. [9] An extension was built to the north, in Carter Lane, in 1890-94 by Sir Henry Tanner; [10] but soon afterwards work began on a new headquarters in West Kensington: Blythe House, where the Post Office Savings Bank took up residence in 1903. (The premises on Queen Victoria Street and Carter Lane became a telephone exchange; the Faraday Building now stands on the site).
The Post Office Savings Bank continued to occupy Blythe House until the early 1970s; however it was announced in 1963 that its main centre of operations would be decentralised to Glasgow. A small headquarters staff remained in London, moving to Charles House on Kensington High Street. [11]
In 2017, NS&I managed around £150 billion in savings. [12] Funds from NS&I have historically been a relatively cheap source of government borrowing. NS&I sets interest rates both to attract savers and provide low-cost finance for the government, and 100% of any individual's savings are guaranteed by HM Treasury; rules are in place to ensure that it does not offer market-leading products that would stifle competition. [13]
NS&I's head office is within the Department of Education building, in Westminster, London; with operational sites in Blackpool, Glasgow, and Durham. However, its back office and customer services operations are contracted out.
NS&I first outsourced out its operations in 1999 to Siemens Business Services; some 4,000 staff were transferred to Siemens, leaving 130 NS&I staff responsible for the design, management and marketing of products, and managing the relationship with Siemens. [14] A 2000 report by the National Audit Office stated that the contract was better value than keeping the operations in-house, and suggested other government departments could learn from the way this public-private partnership was procured and managed. [14] The Siemens business unit was acquired by French company Atos in 2011, [15] and by 2023 the number of staff involved had reduced to just over 1,600. [16]
The Atos contract was renewed for a further seven years in 2014, then extended to March 2024. In November 2023, a six-year customer services contract was awarded to Sopra Steria, another French company, after Atos missed performance targets. [17]
In the past the bank offered many of its services through post offices, but in November 2011 it was announced that most products would only be available by phone, online, or by post; Premium Bonds would be the only remaining product sold in post offices. [18] From August 2015, NS&I stopped selling Premium Bonds through post offices, and became a purely direct business. [19]
NS&I offers a wide range of savings and investment products, specialising in tax-free and income-generating products. As of December 2019 the following are offered: [20]
Some products are off-sale and only available for roll-over by maturing investments:
Products which are no longer available with NS&I include:
An individual savings account is a class of retail investment arrangement available to residents of the United Kingdom. First introduced in 1999, the accounts have favourable tax status. Payments into the account are made from after-tax income, then the account is exempt from income tax and capital gains tax on the investment returns, and no tax is payable on money withdrawn from the scheme.
Premium Bonds is a lottery bond scheme organised by the United Kingdom government since 1956. At present it is managed by the government's National Savings and Investments agency.
An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed. The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, the compounding frequency, and the length of time over which it is lent, deposited, or borrowed.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a United States government corporation supplying deposit insurance to depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks. The FDIC was created by the Banking Act of 1933, enacted during the Great Depression to restore trust in the American banking system. More than one-third of banks failed in the years before the FDIC's creation, and bank runs were common. The insurance limit was initially US$2,500 per ownership category, and this has been increased several times over the years. Since the enactment of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, the FDIC insures deposits in member banks up to $250,000 per ownership category. FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the government of the United States, and according to the FDIC, "since its start in 1933 no depositor has ever lost a penny of FDIC-insured funds".
The ING Group is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private banking, asset management, and insurance services. With total assets of US$967.8 billion, it is one of the biggest banks in the world, and consistently ranks among the largest banks globally.
The Trustee Savings Bank (TSB) was a British financial institution that operated between 1810 and 1995 when it was merged with Lloyds Bank. Trustee savings banks originated to accept savings deposits from those with moderate means. Their shares were not traded on the stock market but, unlike mutually held building societies, depositors had no voting rights; nor did they have the power to direct the financial and managerial goals of the organisation. Directors were appointed as trustees on a voluntary basis. The first trustee savings bank was established by Rev. Henry Duncan of Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire for his poorest parishioners in 1810, with its sole purpose being to serve the local people in the community. Between 1970 and 1985, the various trustee savings banks in the United Kingdom were amalgamated into a single institution named TSB Group plc, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In 1995, the TSB merged with Lloyds Bank to form Lloyds TSB, at that point the largest bank in the UK by market share and the second-largest by market capitalisation.
Postal savings systems provide depositors who do not have access to banks a safe and convenient method to save money. Many nations have operated banking systems involving post offices to promote saving money among the poor.
A savings account is a bank account at a retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, transactions on savings accounts were widely recorded in a passbook, and were sometimes called passbook savings accounts, and bank statements were not provided; however, currently such transactions are commonly recorded electronically and accessible online.
The state treasurer of California is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of California. Thirty-five individuals have held the office of state treasurer since statehood. The incumbent is Fiona Ma, a Democrat. The state treasurer's main office is located in the Jesse M. Unruh State Office Building in Sacramento.
The Bureau of the Public Debt was an agency within the Fiscal Service of the United States Department of the Treasury. United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner issued a directive that the Bureau be combined with the Financial Management Service to form the Bureau of the Fiscal Service in 2012.
TreasuryDirect is a website run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service under the United States Department of the Treasury that allows US individual investors to purchase treasury securities, such as savings bonds, directly from the US government. It enables people to manage their investments online, including connecting their TreasuryDirect account to a bank account for deposits and withdrawals.
Index-linked Savings Certificates are British inflation linked bonds from National Savings and Investments, the state-owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. The bond terms are typically 2, 3 or 5 years. The returns are linked to Retail Price Index (RPI) with a tiny added interest rate on top. The Bonds can no only be cashed in at maturity.
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
In 2008 the Northern Rock bank was nationalised by the British government, due to financial problems caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. In 2010 the bank was split into two parts to aid the eventual sale of the bank back to the private sector.
RateSetter is a British personal loan provider, founded in 2009 as one of the pioneers of peer-to-peer lending. The London-based company traded in the United Kingdom and through a locally-owned and run business in Australia. The UK business was acquired by Metro Bank in September 2020, leading to closure of the peer-to-peer products in April 2021.
JPMorgan Chase is an American multinational banking corporation with a large presence in the United Kingdom. The corporation's European subsidiaries J.P. Morgan Europe Limited, J.P. Morgan International Bank Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities plc are headquartered in London.
Heartland Bank is a New Zealand owned bank that was created in 2011 through the merging of four financial organisations. Heartland was granted its bank registration by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in 2012. It specialises in motor vehicle loans, reverse mortgages, small business finance, livestock finance, savings, investments and deposits.
A prize-linked savings account (PLSA) or lottery-linked deposit account is a savings account in which some of the interest payment on bank deposits or marketing dollars are distributed as prizes based on chance. They are attractive to consumers as they function both as a sweepstakes or game of chance and as savings vehicle. PLSAs are similar to lottery bonds, except they are offered by banks, credit unions, prepaid card companies, and financial technology companies, and they can be held for a period of time determined by the consumer. Sometimes the returns are in-kind prizes rather than cash.
Post Office Money is a financial services brand operated by Post Office Limited which provides credit cards, current accounts, insurance products, mortgages and personal loans to customers in the United Kingdom through Post Office branches, the internet and telephone.
The Central Directorate of National Savings is Pakistan's state-owned savings bank, operating as an attached department under the Finance Division, Ministry of Finance led by the Director General.