National Savings serves as an intermediary which raises funds from individual savers to help finance the government's fiscal deficit through non-bank means.

[2] During the First and Second World War, the British government used the then National Savings Bureau (NSB) to raise funds to meet war-related expenses.

[4] In August 1960, the CDNS was given the status of an "Attached Department" of the Ministry of Finance and made responsible for all policy matters and execution of various National Savings Schemes (NSS).

[8] The organisation sets the rate of interests based on the borrowing cost of government against wholesale debt instruments (Treasury Bills, Pakistan Investment Bonds).

The organisation's regional directorates are located in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Karachi, Quetta, Hyderabad, Multan, Sukkur, Bahawalpur, Islamabad, Abbottabad, and Peshawar.