NS&I Index Linked Certs closed for new applications

lisyloo

but those who want to buy will have to tune in to NSI's website on a daily basis to grab them when they do come up

I think there is an odds on chance they will be LESS desirable
e.g. lower binus or linked to CPI or both.

poppy10_2

National Savings & Investments has withdrawn its popular inflation-beating certificates from sale.
NS&I has announced that its Savings Certificates (both fixed-interest savings certificates and index-linked savings certificates, also known as inflation-beating savings) have been withdrawn from general sale.
It is also reducing the interest rates paid on its Direct Saver and Income Bonds by 0.25 of a percentage point with immediate effect. Sales volumes in recent months across all three products have far exceeded those either anticipated or required by NS&I, it said.
Jane Platt, NS&I's chief executive, said: We are tasked with meeting the government financing objective called our Net Financing target which is set for us each year by HM Treasury.
Weve seen significant amounts of money invested into these products over recent months and so weve taken the difficult decision to withdraw Savings Certificates from general sale and reduce the interest rates paid on our Direct Saver and Income Bonds. This is designed to ensure that we do not exceed the upper end of our Net Financing target range.
The volume of sales over the past few months is such that our forecasts show we were at risk of exceeding the top end of the range, so we needed to take action to reduce sales.

Very bad sign. Likely that the government are preparing to ramp up inflation in order to erode debt.

StevieJ

lisyloo wrote: »

I think there is an odds on chance they will be LESS desirable
e.g. lower binus or linked to CPI or both.

I think you have hit the nail on the head, my guess is this is linked to the pension strategy and a discontinuation of RPI to enable all employers to adopt CPI as the standard inflation measure.

alanq

As I understand it the main difference between RPI and CPI is housing costs. Yet there is/was talk of the government including housing costs in CPI. If this happens, there seems little or no point in making the move from RPI to CPI.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=504743&in_page_id=2

Sceptic001

I thought that the whole point of adopting CPI instead of RPI as the main measure of inflation (apart from the obvious factor that CPI is usually lower ) was that CPI can be used for international comparisons. In which case it is presumably not possible to tamper with the make-up pf CPI as it would no longer be fit for that purpose. Perhaps the government should adopt a new measure, GPI, which could stand for George's Prices Index, and could be whatever the Chancellor wants it to be?

lisyloo

Q. How many economists does it take to change a lightbulb

A. What sort of figure did you have in mind? :rotfl:

StevieJ

One bonus, it will stop all those Martin is misleading the public threads

Mickygg

I wondered how long this would take....... It seemed to be the best non risk investment out there until today - and when there is the best one it is always a matter of time until it closes.

The latest issue was only released in April!

They will defo lower the bonus element now - maybe even lose the bonus altogether as the RPI is currently pretty high. If they have been overloaded they will look at ways to make the ILSC's less desirable when they come back onto the market.

Such a shame savers contine to get battered.....

StevieJ

Mickygg wrote: »

I wondered how long this would take....... It seemed to be the best non risk investment out there until today - and when there is the best one it is always a matter of time until it closes.

The latest issue was only released in April!

They will defo lower the bonus element now - maybe even lose the bonus altogether as the RPI is currently pretty high. If they have been overloaded they will look at ways to make the ILSC's less desirable when they come back onto the market.

Such a shame savers contine to get battered.....

I suppose index linked gilts are still there (for the moment).

D1zzy

B****R - after a week of dithering (NSI or 2 years at about 3.5%)- finally decided that put my latest maturing funds here. Gathered up the necessary paperwork - IDs etc and went to apply online...........................................:(
Don't ever remember there not being an issue available ..Hey Ho!