The Treasury-backed savings provider NS&I has issued a clear reminder to millions of Premium Bonds holders about the strict rules it uses to protect winners' privacy when announcing prize locations.
Protecting winners' anonymity
In a statement on its website, NS&I confirmed it has "set some rules" around revealing where winners live. While seeing the luckiest areas each month is a popular feature for customers, the institution prioritises safeguarding personal details.
"To protect winners’ anonymity and help keep their personal details private, we set some rules around revealing prize winning locations," NS&I stated. The system is designed to announce winners without disclosing their precise residential address.
The four-tier hierarchy system
NS&I employs a four-level hierarchy to determine what geographical information is published. Each customer is assigned to a town, local authority, county, Government Standard Region, and country.
The crucial rule is that an area must have at least 100,000 Premium Bonds holders assigned to it for its name to be published. If the initial town has fewer holders, NS&I moves up the levels until it finds an area meeting the threshold.
How the levels work
Level 1 is the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) Town, such as Blackpool. Level 2 is the County or Local Authority, for example Lancashire.
Level 3 refers to the Government Standard Region, like the North West. Level 4 is the Country, such as England.
For large cities divided into boroughs, NS&I quotes the specific local authority area with the fewest customers over the 100,000 limit. This means a borough name may appear instead of the city name.
Rules for overseas holders
The policy also applies to customers living outside the United Kingdom. NS&I only publishes the country name if there are at least 100,000 holders residing there. If this threshold is not met, the location is simply listed as 'overseas'.
The provider noted that the list of areas is updated periodically as the number of bondholders in each region changes. This ensures the anonymity protection remains effective over time, balancing public interest with individual privacy for all Premium Bonds participants.
