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