Called Sterling Boost, the product accepts balances of between £1 and £10,000, and offers instant, penalty-free access to funds.

Ziglu has launched Sterling Boost for people looking for a better return on their savings accounts and who are willing to invest to achieve this. It is concerned that many people are using funds from extremely low risk cash savings accounts to buy cryptocurrencies. Ziglu says Sterling Boost provides an attractive alternative to this - offering a better return than cash savings accounts, and with a risk profile that is much lower than investing directly in cryptocurrencies.

New analysis(2) commissioned by Ziglu and conducted by MoneyComms reveals that the average interest rate on instant access savings accounts is 0.171%, and that once you take into account CPI inflation of 1.5%, the real return is -1.329%. Nearly half of instant access accounts are paying 0.1% AER or less.

For one-year fixed rate bonds, the average interest rate is 0.418% with a ‘real’ return of -1.082%, and the corresponding figures for 3-year fixed rate bonds are 0.648% and -0.852%.

Ziglu’s Sterling Boost is designed to offer a safer alternative to those who are using their cash savings to invest in cryptocurrencies. The company’s research(1) reveals that over the next six months, 29% of people plan to take money out of their savings accounts because the returns are so low, and invest it elsewhere. Some 18% intend to take out at least £1,000 from their savings account for this purpose, and 5% plan to switch at least £10,000.

Mark Hipperson, Founder and CEO of Ziglu said: “There is quite a degree of volatility in the world’s stock markets and real returns on cash are in negative territory. In addition to this, we have seen huge fluctuations in the valuations of leading cryptocurrencies, and we estimate that billions of pounds from savings accounts have been used to buy these. This is going from one end of the risk spectrum to the other.

“We have launched Sterling Boost to provide a better return than cash, and without the price changes of the cryptocurrency markets. It makes use of the opportunities presented by stablecoins and decentralised finance to provide a great return to investors.”

Andrew Hagger, Founder of Moneycomms.co.uk said: “Ziglu is looking to tempt cash savers with an attractive interest return, and this will appeal to some of those already using their savings balance to cautiously dip their toe into the cryptocurrency market.

“However, if customers choose to purchase cryptocurrency rather than invest in the Sterling Boost account, they need to understand that it can be an extremely volatile market and whilst they might enjoy some decent returns, there is a real danger that they could lose money too.”