UK government-owned state bank National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has rolled out an online service for financial advice firms.
It will give companies access to information on their clients’ NS&I holdings through a portal.
This has been designed and developed in response to feedback from advice firms, which asked NS&I to make it easier for them to do business with the bank.
Andrew Pike, head of intermediary relationships at NS&I, said: “We are fortunate that most advice firms are supporters of NS&I, but I accept that we have not always made it easy for them to interact with us and this can affect the onward service they give to their clients.
“This new online service addresses this issue.”
The portal “represents a significant investment by NS&I and is a clear statement of our intent to form closer ties with the advice industry, to the benefit of all parties”, Pike added.
Features of the portal
Once registered, advice firms will be able to do the following via the new online service:
- View a list of their clients with NS&I holdings (subject to a Letter of Authority);
- Select a client and view their NS&I portfolio;
- View the transaction history of an account;
- Get a valuation of fixed term accounts and see their maturity dates;
- View copies of communications sent to their clients from NS&I; and
- View a client’s Premium Bonds prize history.
All staff in an advice firm can be granted access by a ‘super-user’ in the firm, including all financial advisers, planners, paraplanners and other staff.
Phil Billingham, chartered financial planner at Perceptive Planning, said: “The online service will make it much easier to manage our clients’ NS&I investments.
“NS&I have created a useful tool that says a lot about their commitment to building a strong relationship with advisers.”
Expansion plans
This is only the first version of the service, with further enhancements planned for later in 2019, including:
- Joint account information
- Trust account information
