NS&I chief executive replaced in ‘fresh start’ over missing savings crisis – business live

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Dax Harkins, the former CEO of NS&I, who has resigned as the government pushes for fresh leadership Photograph: NS&I

Torsten Bell adds that the Treasury recognises that some estates will be concerned about the implications of the NS&I savings scandal on the amount of taxes that are due.

He says he will set out how the governmnet intends to address that in May.

[some estates may not have paid the correct inheritance tax, if the true value of an estate was not reported due to NS&I’s blunders].

Q: Will all monies that are owed to families will definitely be paid, and will NS&I handle these cases very sensitively?

Torsten Bell says he can reassure MPs that everyone will receive the money they are due, saying:

We will make every endeavour to reconnect people with their funds

That will include directly contacting the representatives of the estate.

Bell also says it is “a deep regret” to him and NS&I that people administering estates have encountered such problems.

Compensation and compensatory interest will be paid to NS&I customers

Q: What compensation will be available to customers who have lost money due to NS&I’s failings?

Torsten Bell says the government will ensure that “appropriate compensation is paid”, inline with the Financial Conduct Authority’s policies on best practice in this area.

Bell explains:

That will include compensation [and] compensatory interest where funds have been withheld from estates for longer than they should have been them.

More complicated cases will be considered on a case by case basis, Bell adds.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson Bobby Dean tells the House of Commons that the missing savings scandal is a “hammer blow” to trust in NS&I.

Dean adds:

The fact that these cases involve bereaved families make it particularly damaging.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell replies that “it’s really important” to remember that no funds have been misplaced and that everybody will be entitled to every penny of their, savings.

Bell adds that he has “put new leadership in place” at NS&I to help rebuild trust in the institution.

Sir Jim Harra, the new interim CEO, will be in a position to “give us the full truth” about how he sees the situation, Bell adds, explaining that he has asked Harra to report back in three months.

Bell: NS&I must present delivery plan as soon as May

MPs are now asking questions about the NS&I crisis.

Q: How will the government raise awareness that savers don’t need to use claims management services?

Pensions minister Torsten Bell reiterates that the government’s priority is to make sure people are reunited with their money, without incurring costs.

Bell says he has been clear with NS&I that they must set out a delivery plan as soon as May about how they’re going to reunite people with their money.

That will involve contacting representatives of estates in the first instance, he adds.

I want to be really clear with the public today that the onus is not on them. The onus is on NS&I to contact the people who deserve their funds to be reunited with them, and that is what we will all be focussed on.

Bell: NS&I's departing CEO has resigned and didn't get a bonus

Responding to Bell, shadow pensions minister Mark Garnier tells MPs that bereaved families have been “shortchanged” by NS&I.

Garnier says:

This is a scandal that is affecting tens of thousands of people, and it is a scandal that could end up costing taxpayers many millions of pounds.

Garnier also asks Bell why it took three months for him to update MPs on the issue, as NS&I warned the Treasury about problems last December.

Garnier also asks if departing NS&I CEO Dax Harkins resigned or was sacked?

Torsten Bell says the government had intended “for some time” to update the House on the issue.

He confirms that the former chief executive of NS&I [Dax Harkins] “has resigned today” and he did not receive a bonus last year.

Bell also criticises “some deeply misleading reporting” over the last 24 hours, insisting that the money that is being returned to estates belongs to those estates. Ie, it is not taxpayers’ money.

New 'interim' CEO of NS&I appointed over lost savings scandal

The boss of National Savings and Investments appears to have been dismissed over the £476m savings scandal at the bank.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell has told MPs that he has appointed Sir Jim Harra, a senior civil servant, to take over as the chief executive of NS&I on an interim basis, replacing Dax Harkins.

Bell says Harra, a former first permanent secretary at HMRC, will provide “a fresh start for NS&I”, following its failure to trace missing savings belonging to customers who have died.

Updating MPs on the crisis over deceased customers’ savings, Bell says he wants to make sure NS&I has “the very best leadership” in place.

Bell tells MPs:

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 NSI going forward.

Bell: NS&I savings are 100% safe

Pensions minister Torsten Bell adds that it is “right” that NS&I are apologising over the missing savings crisis.

Bell says the government will ensure that beneficiaries of those customers who have passed away are reunited with any funds that NHSN holds.

He adds:

These deposits belong to customers. Returning them in no way represents an additional liability to the taxpayer. And for the avoidance of doubt, let me spell out that those savings are 100% safe.

Pension minister: Up to 37,500 customers affected by NS&I deceased customer crisis

Over in parliament, pensions minister Torsten Bell is giving a statement about the crisis at National Savings & Investment (NS&I) involving bereaved families.

Bell tells MPs that NS&I informed the Treasury on 18 December 2025 about an “operational 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, as they should have been. Specifically, processes failed to comprehensively trace some customer holdings where those were spread across multiple profiles or systems.

Bell then explains that the Treasury has engaged external advisers to identify the scale of these errors, with 34 million customer records having been revised.

This work suggests that a maximum of 37,500 customers, with up to £476m in deposits, are affected by the problems, Bell adds.

That represents less than 0.2% of NS&I’s customers, but is “still far too many”, Bell tells the Commons.

Norway's central bank signals rate rise is likely

Norway’s central bank has signalled that it expects to raise interest rates, to battle the inflationary hit from the Iran war.

The Norges Bank left its policy rate unchanged today, at 4%. But its monetary policy committee also signalled that it will probably be “appropriate” to raise rates at one of the forthcoming monetary policy meetings.

Norges Bank governor Ida Wolden Bache says:

“Norges Bank is tasked with keeping inflation close to 2% over time. Inflation has remained above target for several years, and the outlook indicates that inflation will be higher ahead than previously projected.

Uncertainty is greater than normal due to the war in the Middle East, but the Committee judges that it will likely be necessary to raise the policy rate at one of the forthcoming monetary policy meetings.”

Back in the City, shares in the electricals retailer Curry’s have dropped 7.5% after the CEO who engineered the firm’s turnaround announced his departure.

Alex Baldock is stepping down after eight years as group chief executive “to take a new external position”, Curry’s told shareholders this morning.

Baldock steered Currys through Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said this morning:

The resignation of Alex Baldock is a £141 million loss to Currys, judging by the amount wiped off its market value on the news.

The CEO leaves on a high. He not only fought off an activist investor trying to take over the business on the cheap but also steered the ship out of a rocky patch and took it to new heights.

Finding someone of Baldock’s calibre as a replacement will not be easy. He has achieved the rare task of keeping a high street retailer relevant in the digital age.

Curry’s also told investors that it has traded in line with expectations since its last trading update on 21 January, implying that it hasn’t seen a hit from the Iran war.

UK inflation expected to hit 4% this year

The latest OECD report sees UK inflation at 4% for 2026, a nasty upgrade of 1.5 percentage points compared to their prediction only three months ago.

That figure may found familar to regular readers, as Prof Costas Milas of Liverpool University explains:

It looks like OECD staff carefully read the Guardian Business (live) as we predicted the very same percentage point increase in inflation (due to the oil shock) only last week:

Public inflation expectations are almost certain to take into account the rising oil prices (which will lift wage demand pressures), in which case, the MPC will have no other choice than firing a “warning shot” in terms of a 25 basis points increase in Bank Rate. 30 April (when the MPC decides on interest rates and issues new forecasts of the UK economy) should be a memorable one!

Donald Trump has warned Iran to “get serious soon” about peace talks.

Posting on his Truth Social site, the US president warned that the consequences ‘won’t be pretty” otherwise, writing:

The Iranian negotiators are very different and “strange.” They are “begging” us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only “looking at our proposal.” WRONG!!! They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty! President DJT

Brent crude remains over $106 a barrel …

Trump also took a pop at Nato, claiming that its members have done “absolutely nothing to help” with Iran, something the US will not forget …