It may be a good time to put away money into savings accounts as banks are in the mood to reward savers.

In the face of historically low interest rates, banks are doing their bit to encourage Britons to save, it has been claimed.

Workers are being offered special premiums as financial institutions struggle with their liquidity issues, pointed out Moneyfacts.co.uk.

Darren Cook, head of press and PR at the company, said: "There is a market at the moment where banks are forced to make sure they have enough liquidity and rely on savers to fund their lending, so they have to pay a higher premium to savers to retain that business."

He added that as opposed to the 0.5 per cent base rate, one at 3.5 per cent would be of more interest to both savers and borrowers.

The latest consumer price index figures show inflation to be at 3.1 per cent September.