J P Hilton's book Britain's First Municipal Savings Bank (published 1927) makes reference to National Savings as follows:

Pressure was brought to bear upon the Bank to sell national savings certificates at the various offices of the Bank, and in December, 1920, arrangements were made for these certificates to be available for any person desiring to purchase same. Little business, however, was done in this direction. The majority of depositors in the Bank are not those who can afford to purchase certificates in the hope of retaining them intact until maturity date, and to save by this method, merely to cash them when wanting money, has no particular attraction. The opportunities provided by the Post Office in Birmingham for purchasing these certificates, are, in themselves, sufficient, and as the sales over our Bank counters were so small the practice of dealing with them has been abandoned.

 

(The Bank's records show that sales of National Savings Certificates were £17,762 in 1921/22 and £3,205 in 1922/23. The total of £20,967 is included in the total sales figure for the NSC column below.)

 

The Bank's position, however, was to change following the outbreak of war in September 1939. The 1940 Annual Report stated:

On the inauguration of the War Savings Campaign the Bank at once arranged for the sale of Savings Certificates and Defence Bonds at all offices. Up to the end of March the sales of Certificates through the Bank amounted to £308,361, and Defence Bonds to £57,950.

 

The following statistics relate to the sales of these two forms of National Savings:
    NSC =    National Savings Certificates
    Bonds = Defence Bonds and War Bonds (1940 to 1965);

                    National Development Bonds (1965 to 1968);

                    British Savings Bonds (1969 to 1977)

 

    Premium Savings Bonds (PSB) were introduced on November 1st 1956, and purchases through the Bank were as detailed below.

	NSC (£)	NSC (No.)	Bonds (£)	Bonds (No.)	PSB (£)	PSB (No.)
1922	17,762	n/a	-	-	-	-
1923	3,205	n/a	-	-	-	-
1940	308,361	n/a	57,950	n/a	-	-
1941	896,527	n/a	249,350	n/a	-	-
1942	981,068	198,978	156,775	1,783	-	-
1943	963,659	n/a	119,100	n/a	-	-
1944	1,028,967	n/a	112,570	n/a	-	-
1945	831,593	n/a	108,830	n/a	-	-
1946	619,105	94,958	205,050	830	-	-
1947	741,536	77,190	395,780	818	-	-
1948	785,359	57,083	24,620	109	-	-
1949	524,480	52,050	23,440	110	-	-
1950	503,881	56,494	14,840	50	-	-
1951	747,783	57,358	21,980	56	-	-
1952	1,140,661	68,866	64,345	150	-	-
1953	881,836	66,298	151,920	419	-	-
1954	868,843	68,356	93,525	305	-	-
1955	1,030,088	72,215	125,055	332	-	-
1956	1,090,691	84,550	173,555	457	-	-
1957	1,982,315	111,752	320,895	788	158,589	6,356
1958	1,093,699	88,654	145,290	466	291,072	13,953
1959	1,520,581	99,774	450,855	1,022	226,013	13,162
1960	1,070,574	94,015	425,360	1,179	161,405	9,362
1961	1,093,346	92,335	338,840	930	210,384	8,194
1962	832,901	95,320	270,565	819	185,228	7,377
1963	883,375	58,929	286,910	840	180,605	6,484
1964	766,929	43,981	193,340	616	190,788	6,950
1965	909,381	43,014	571,955	1,445	237,195	7,750
1966	490,345	32,249	345,025	1,185	222,663	7,764
1967	1,799,564	46,375	238,530	787	211,416	8,232
1968	1,202,736	28,647	120,650	502	239,915	8,807
1969	928,773	24,681	120,645	392	284,691	10,662
1970	801,247	18,625	147,971	416	237,877	8,332
1971	888,734	18,331	69,390	262	227,696	8,972
1972	1,614,293	25,916	106,200	256	297,421	8,413
1973	956,895	17,580	76,115	260	229,688	6,045
1974	654,038	12,850	193,335	310	207,877	5,692
1975	895,959	11,581	77,830	143	211,591	5,155
1976	1,825,186	14,574	112,570	218	242,460	4,960
1976 *	926,690	7,522	111,795	104	147,049	2,228
1977	3,775,263	19,641	46,405	67	211,751	2,966
	40,878,229	1,960,742	6,869,156	18,426	4,813,374	167,816