Over £280bn is sitting in UK bank accounts earning no interest, according to data released today by the Bank of England.

Despite interest rates currently sitting north of 5% for some savings accounts, the cash getting no return has grown by £51bn over the past year.

Deposits in banks and building societies rose by £7.4bn in March, with net deposits of £5bn during the month, according to the Bank of England data.

Savers paid £4.2bn into Cash ISAs during the month, putting the 2024/25 tax year in line for a record amount of inflows into these accounts for the year.

Over £1.6bn was paid into easy access accounts paying interest, £3bn was paid into easy access accounts paying no interest, and £1.3bn was withdrawn from fixed rate savings.

British savers have missed out on over £6.9bn of interest payments over the past year, according to analysis by investment and SIPP platform AJ Bell.

Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell said: “The nation is missing out on millions of pounds of potential returns on their money. Even if the £230 billion sitting in zero-paying accounts a year ago had earned a rather pedestrian 3% return on the cash in the past 12 months, it would have made the nation £6.9 billion richer.

“Not only is the money not earning any interest, it’s also being eaten away by inflation.”