In December 2020 Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, estimated that UK households had built up 100 billion in “excess savings” as a result of lockdowns and restrictions. These ‘accidental savers’ are asking themselves where they should put their lockdown savings. Traditional financial products aren’t attractive as interest rates and lower risk retail investment returns remain exceptionally low. At the same time, Environmental, Social and Governance investing and ‘building back better’ are becoming increasingly important narratives resonating in different ways with a wide range of different communities across the UK. The opportunity: create a range of financial products that incentivise households to use excess savings to fund Covid recovery, our environmental ambitions and ‘levelling up’.
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