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Half a BILLION spent on Prize
Bonds last year
27.04.16
MISERLY deposit
interest rates have sent Irish punters crazy for
Prize Bonds with a whopping HALF-BILLION euro spent
on them here last year, new figures reveal.
The sales surge has pushed the overall national
Prize Bond fund to a record high of almost 2.5
billion.
The 2015 annual report from the Prize Bond Company
Ltd., shows that people spent just over 551 million
last year buying Prize Bonds - a 16% rise on the
previous year.
A further 253 million worth of bonds were cashed
out by punters.
Meanwhile, a pot of winnings worth 2.5m,
accumulated over almost 60 years, lies unclaimed at
the Irish treasury, the data show.
However, the number of prizes awarded last year
dropped by 18% to just over 389,000. The value of
prizes also fell by almost 9% to 29 million.
The Prize Bond Company Ltd., operates the scheme on
behalf of the National Treasury Management Agency. |
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National Prize Bond fund reaches a
record high of almost 2.5 billion. |
The company said the
drop in the number and value of prizes was due to a
reduction in the interest rate applied to the
overall fund in 2014.
Key figures from the annual report show that gross
Prize Bond sales last year amounted to 551.5
million with the total fund value now standing at
2.48 billion.
This represented a 14% rise on the value of the fund
compared to the 2014 value of 2.17 billion.
The company said that 8,000 prizes are issued
weekly.
It said 2.47 million in unclaimed prizes had
accumulated since the scheme began in 1957 but that
this represented a "small portion" of the value of
prizes awarded in that time.
Unclaimed prizes are held indefinitely until claimed
by a prize-winner.
Prize Bond Company chairman John Daly said the bonds
remained attractive for people who want to keep
their original investment intact.
Customers are finding Prize Bonds increasingly
attractive given the low interest rates on deposit
accounts," he said. |
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