NS&I boss sacked over £400m savings scandal
The boss of National Savings and Investments has been sacked over a series of errors regarding payouts and its bereavement services.
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Dax Harkins was dismissed from National Savings and Investments (NS&I), the state-owned savings bank, this morning during a meeting with Treasury officials.
He was appointed chief executive of NS&I in April 2023 and took home more than £300,000 a year in salary and pension perks.
Pensions Minister Torsten Bell told MPs today in the Commons that he had appointed Sir Jim Harra to take over as interim chief executive of NS&I "from today".
"I want to make sure NS&I has the best leadership in place," he said.
He thanked the outgoing CEO Mr Harkins for his years of public service.
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National Savings and Investments (NS&I) is expected to announce hundreds of millions of pounds worth of compensation over errors managing the money of thousands of customers.
The Government-backed bank has held talks with the Treasury over repaying about 37,000 savers whose funds have been affected.
NS&I could end up paying back as much as £400 million to impacted customers.
The reported failings at the bank included bereaved families not being able to receive money they claim was rightfully theirs.
The bank yesterday apologised to anyone suffering a bereavement who has not received the customer service "they should expect".
NS&I offers a range of savings and investments to more than 24 million customers, including more than 22 million Premium Bonds holders.
Some families had been forced to hire lawyers to obtain cash that was rightfully theirs because the savings bank had lost track of customers’ life savings in some cases, according to the Telegraph which first exposed the scandal.
The exact amount of savings to be returned is yet to be determined, with Treasury officials understood to be working with NS&I on the finer points of the “very complex issue”, but it is thought to stretch into the hundreds of millions.