A surge in demand for children’s accounts, premium bonds, ISAs and income bonds at NS&I, the Government-owned savings institution, saw Britons pay £16.4 billion into its offerings in the year to April.
That was up from the £11.7 billion savers invested in the previous 12 months as NS&I saw £8 billion plunged into Premium Bonds, up from £6.7 billion a year earlier, and £2.9 billion put into its direct saver account, up from £2 billion 12 months earlier.
Chief executive Jane Platt — who received a £210,000 pay package for the year, frozen from a year earlier — said: “In a growing retail savings market in 2013-14, we achieved our key financial targets: delivering £3.4 billion of net financing and £346 million savings for the taxpayer.”
From this month, the maximum amount savers can hold in premium bonds was raised from £30,000 to £40,000, the first increase in 11 years.
The change, which was announced in March’s Budget, came alongside the introduction of a new pensioner bond, to go on sale next January, offering older savers a market-leading interest rate on up to £10,000 per investment.
