2008: The Year of Record Breaking Savings

While the credit market has seen a marked slowdown over the past 7 months, the savings sector has experienced the opposite effect as Brits reigned in their spending and started to squirrel away their pennies in preparation for the financially tough times ahead.

Figures released only today by the Building Societies Association reveal that March was yet another record breaking month for UK societies, with savings inflows across the board totaling over £1.26billion; representing a 70% increase on the £0.7billion received during the same period last year.

This marks the eighth consecutive month of ‘outstandingly high’ savings figures for building societies at a time when larger financial institutions are struggling to supplement their income.

Announcing these results, Director-General of the BSA, Adrian Coles commented:

“Against the current uncertain economic climate, building societies are seen as tried and tested, traditional and trusted. Together with the competitive rates of interest they offer, these attributes mean societies continue to attract record levels of savings.

While the public's desire to build up a store of emergency savings as a protective buffer against the tightening conditions of the credit crisis has obviously played an important role in establishing this pattern, even for those that aren’t concerned about the effects of ‘the crunch’, there has really never been a better time to save.