National Savings & Investments have withdrawn their Index-linked Savings Certificates and Fixed Interest Savings Certificates from sale.
These latest issues of Savings Certificates became available nearly four months ago on 12th May 2011 and have clearly proven very popular.
Back in May when they were reintroduced, we wrote in our blog that we expected the level of demand for this new issue of Index-linked Certificates to be very high.
It is little surprise that National Savings have now withdrawn these Savings Certificates from sale.
They were previously withdrawn from sale in July 2010 due to their popularity.
The products are backed by HM Treasury and offer savers protection against price inflation.
The issue which has now been withdrawn from sale paid inflation, as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) plus 0.5%. Returns are tax-free.
They were a five year bond with a maximum investment of £15,000.
The good news for investors who did subscribe to this now withdrawn issue of Savings Certificates is they should be able to invest further money when the Index-linked Savings Certificates are eventually reintroduced.
It remains to be seen whether NS&I will relaunch the Index-linked Savings Certificates using the Retail Prices Index (RPI) or typically lower Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of price inflation.
Photo credit: Flickr/kirstyhall
