NS&I Annual Results to year ending on 31 March 2004

During the financial year, customers benefited from developments to NS&I’s existing products and the introduction of a completely new savings account, the Easy Access Savings Account. Additionally, NS&I has made it easier for customers to save and invest by improving sales channels, such as telephone and internet.

Highlights 2003-04

• Premium Bonds limit raised to £30,000 in May 2003, up from £20,000 per person
• Guaranteed Equity Bonds: three Issues launched during the year attracting more than £200 million in investments
• Easy Access Savings Account introduced in January 2004, in place of the Ordinary Account
• Internet sales doubled to nearly £300 million, up from £147 million in 2002-03
• 2.2 million calls to NS&I’s customer enquiries and sales centre, up 10% on the previous year
• Call centre staff numbers increased from 170 to 300 in the financial year
• 90% of calls answered within 20 seconds – by a person, not a machine
• £5.76 billion sales and 16 million transactions through the Post Office 
• 60,000 website visitors per day, compared to 30,000 in 2002-03

NS&I is one of the UK’s largest financial providers, with 30 million customers and £66.5 billion invested, and is unique in that it provides retail savings and investments that are 100% secure, backed by HM Treasury.

Alan Cook, NS&I chief executive, said:

“During the last financial year, National Savings and Investments worked hard to improve products and services for our customers and made it easier for them to save and invest with us. We introduced the Easy Access Savings Account and made it easier for people to invest online and by phone.

“Premium Bonds sales reached £7.49 billion, almost £2.75 billion more than during the year 2002 to 2003, aided by the increase in the amount people can invest. Around 150,000 people now have the maximum £30,000 invested in Premium Bonds. Our Guaranteed Equity Bonds were enormously popular, with sales reaching well over £200 million and it was apparent that the security element and competitive offers were attractive to customers.

“Although we are recognised widely for providing a completely secure home for peoples’ money, our successful year is perhaps a reflection of the fact that existing and new customers value the security we provide and are attracted by the quality of our savings and investments products.

“In the future we will improve existing products and services and introduce new ways of saving and investing with us. We are also actively in the process of expanding our retail channels, as well as building alliances with third partners through which customers will be able to learn about and buy our products. We aim to become the UK’s leading and most trusted savings and investments organisation.”

Business highlights

• £3.4 billion net financing – funds raised for government, more than quadruple the figure of £784 million for 2002-03.
• Balance of funds now £66.5 billion as at 31 March 2004
• £12.7 billion gross sales of NS&I’s savings and investments products (13% increase on £11.2 billion in 2002-03)
• £260.6 million – savings to the taxpayer by reducing the cost of government borrowing
• Premium Bond sales £7.49 billion, of which nearly £1.1 billion were sold in May 2003 – an all time monthly high (57% increase on £4.75 billion in 2002-03).
• In May 2003, NS&I raised the maximum investment limit to £30,000, up from £20,000
• Five year plan aims to grow total financing by £15 billion to £78 billion by 2007- 08. The original five-year plan, published in 2002, aimed to raise £10 billion by 2007-08
• Internet and telephone sales increase by 104% to £790 million and 58% to £300 million respectively.

Developments since April 2004

• Savings Certificate investment limit raised to £15,000 per person per Issue, up from £10,000 (April)
• Guaranteed Equity Bond Issue 8 launched, offering 75% of FTSE growth or 15% minimum return (May)
• Premium Bonds available to buy over the phone on 0500 007 007 (June)
• Premium Bond £1 million jackpot winner wins with £17 worth of Bonds from 1959 (July)
• Total deposits in Guaranteed Equity Bonds exceed £600 million (July)
• Ordinary Account closed on 31 July
• ERNIE 4 launched to cope with increasing numbers of Premium Bonds in the monthly draw (August)
• Premium Bond prizes exceed 1 million with a value of £57 million (September)

Notes to Editors

1. National Savings and Investments Annual Report and Accounts 2003-04 was presented to the House of Commons pursuant to section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 on 20 July 2004.
2. National Savings and Investments is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK, offering a range of savings and investments products (to 30 million customers). All products offer 100% security, because they are backed by HM Treasury. NS&I is a government department and an executive agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, reporting to Stephen Timms MP, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury.