NS&I withdraws popular savings product, again!
A popular savings product provided by National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has today been withdrawn from the market amid rumours that the UK government is addressing a potential conflict of interest. This is not the first time that a savings product, head and shoulders above anything else on the market, has been withdrawn at short notice despite being marketed and launched in a triumphant fanfare.
There is a growing feeling that the UK government is finally addressing a potential conflict of interest which has seen NS&I take a significant chunk of the savings market from major banking institutions, institutions which are still suffering from the banking downturn. There were concerns that the withdrawal of funds from the traditional banking arena was being fuelled by investments into NS&I products which offered a significantly better interest rate.
While it is easy to see where the UK government is coming from on this particular issue, having bailed out the UK banking sector using taxpayers funds, it is UK savers who will suffer in the short to medium term with the more prominent products from NS&I being withdrawn from the market place. The savings arena will revert to "traditional competition" in due course but at this moment in time there is still an imbalance between demand in the loan market, liquidity and savings rates.
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