NSI to repay £367 million to bereaved estates after tracing failure

National Savings and Investments will begin contacting tens of thousands of bereaved families next week as it starts repaying approximately £367 million that was not returned to estates due to an operational failure. The state-backed savings bank confirmed the full remediation program will not be completed until mid-2027.

The issue stems from a failure in NSI's bereavement tracing system, which did not identify all holdings belonging to deceased customers over a period stretching back to 2008. As a result, funds remained dormant instead of being distributed to relatives or executors. The organization now estimates up to 34,000 estates were affected, a revision from an initial March estimate of 37,500 estates and £476 million.

Sir Jim Harra, the interim chief executive, issued a fresh apology. He stated the issue should not have happened and that beginning the repayment process is a key step in putting things right. Families expecting swift compensation, however, face a further wait as NSI acknowledged the new, more robust verification process introduced in January 2026 is taking considerably longer than anticipated, leading to broader delays in processing all bereavement claims.