National Savings & Investments

Torsten Bell Excerpts

Thursday 26th March 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Torsten Bell)]

On 18 December 2025, NS&I notified the Treasury of a failure to comprehensively trace accounts for some customers who had passed away. The result of this failure is that not all savings were identified by NS&I and paid to the beneficiaries of their estates.

Specifically, processes failed to comprehensively trace some customers’ holdings where those were spread across multiple profiles or systems despite consistent identifying details, such as name, address and date of birth, that should have made that possible.

There have been wider related historical challenges, for example, the FCA took enforcement action in 2018 against Santander relating to the tracing of accounts following bereavement claims. It is now clear that NS&I did not respond to these warning signs as fully as we in the Government, and more importantly their customers, would expect.

Action so far

Since being notified of this issue, HM Treasury has ensured external advisers, including EY and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, have been engaged to identify the scale of these errors. Through this work NS&I has reviewed 34 million customer records.

Their work is ongoing, but it points to up to a maximum of around 37,000 customers, with up to £476 million in deposits, being affected. This number is likely to fall in future, but while it currently represents less than 0.2% of NS&I’s customers, it is still far too many.

NS&I is not regulated by the FCA, but the Government expect it to live up to the same standards as regulated deposit taking banks. It is therefore right that NS&I is apologising for these failings today.

The Government’s priorities are now threefold:

Fixing the problem going forward

First, and immediately, the priority is to ensure that the problem is no longer taking place.

NS&I has received written assurances from its customer facing supplier, SSL, that the causes of this tracing issue have been addressed and will not affect customers going forward. Its previous supplier, Atos, has also committed to full co-operation given this issue is long standing.

Reuniting funds and compensation

Our second priority is to ensure that we reunite beneficiaries of those customers who have passed away with any funds that NS&I holds.

We can confirm that those savings are 100% safe. This issue is about tracing, not the security of any funds.

NS&I has put in place a dedicated programme team to oversee this work, hiring an additional 100 staff, and will be publishing a delivery plan in May, detailing how it will take forward this work to reunite funds with their owners.

This will cover:

the numbers of cases affected

how NS&I will proactively contact representatives of estates to ensure they receive the funds they are due, including interest on savings;

and the compensation that, where appropriate, will be paid.

There is no need for individuals to utilise a claims management company or solicitor to reclaim this money. The onus is not on individuals but on NS&I to act and to contact estate representatives and reconnect beneficiaries with the money they are due. We are committed to ensuring NS&I supports those who have experienced a loss by making the process for reuniting beneficiaries with their money as easy as possible.

We also recognise that there may be tax implications for affected estates, and want to avoid bereaved families facing disproportionate disruption and administrative costs as a result of this error. We are exploring what support we can provide and will set this out alongside NS&I’s delivery plan.

Further information is available on the NS&I website and its contact centre is open seven days a week.

To confirm, current NS&I customers can access their accounts as normal. Any customers wishing to trace old accounts can use the tracing services direct through NS&I or the My Lost Account website.

The organisation

NS&I plays an important role, helping the public save and providing a material contribution towards Government financing. The organisation must continue to play that role, while also addressing the tracing issue.

NS&I must also complete what has proved a challenging digital business transformation programme. This programme was put in place back in 2020 but with little progress made in the latter years of the previous Parliament, as the recent Public Accounts Committee report set out. This Government have appointed David Goldstone —former chief operating officer at the Ministry of Defence—to support NS&I to bring the programme back on track.

It is important that NS&I has the very best leadership in place. Effective from today, we have appointed Sir Jim Harra, former HMRC first permanent secretary, to take over as chief executive of NS&I on an interim basis, to provide a fresh start for NS&I’s next phase of development. We would like to thank Dax Harkins, his predecessor, for his 22 years of public service at NS&I.

As well as providing leadership to the organisation, Sir Jim will undertake a review over the next three months to spell out in detail the background to this tracing problem, and to set out what lessons must be learned for NS&I going forward.

We will ensure Sir Jim’s review is shared with the Chairs of the Treasury and Public Accounts Committees upon completion.

[HCWS1482]