Gretel calls on NS&I to act now and collaborate to overcome challenges and reunite savers with their money quickly

Recent reporting on NS&I has highlighted the need for faster, more responsive processes to trace customers, reconnect holdings, and support bereaved and vulnerable people with clarity and sensitivity. Public reporting today says around 37,500 customers may be affected, involving up to £476 million in deposits, with compensation to be paid where appropriate. 

Gretel, the UK’s most widely used free service for reconnecting consumers with lost and dormant financial accounts, says the story underlines the value of closer collaboration between large financial institutions and fintechs and specialist SME technology providers that can improve tracing, outreach and service delivery quickly, without waiting for major transformation programmes to conclude. Working with some of the largest financial services providers in the FTSE 100, Gretel’s corporate services are designed to help firms stay connected with customers and reunite them with lost assets more effectively.

Duncan Stevens, Chief Executive Officer at Gretel, said: “Today’s coverage is an important reminder that customer outcomes can often be improved more quickly when large institutions work in partnership with fintechs and specialist technology providers.

In many cases, firms do not need to wait for protracted or costly transformation programmes to finish before making meaningful improvements. With the right partners, it is possible to enhance tracing, customer outreach and support journeys in a matter of days, helping institutions respond faster and more effectively where customer records are historic, fragmented or incomplete.

At Gretel, we specialise in enabling financial services firms to trace and reconnect with customers rapidly and at scale. This is not about future transformation; it is about taking practical action now, particularly for bereaved families and other vulnerable customers, where clarity, speed and sensitivity matter most.”

Every week, thousands of consumers register with Gretel to search for financial accounts in their name, often after trying other routes without success. Gretel is designed to help organisations address the kinds of issues highlighted in cases of this nature, including incomplete historical records, gone-away customers and the complexities involved in supporting bereaved families, and includes built-in functionality such as document digitisation. 

Closer collaboration between established financial institutions and agile fintech partners can reduce wait times, improve the completeness of customer information, and deliver materially better outcomes sooner, especially in cases involving bereavement, vulnerability or historic records. Acting sooner rather than later would not just improve customer outcomes; it could also help avoid future remediation costs, complaints and compensation that might otherwise fall back on the public purse. 

Gretel is ready to work with NS&I, policymakers and the wider industry now to strengthen processes, accelerate customer tracing and outreach, and deliver the step change in customer outcomes that this issue demands.