It certainly sounds like it, I think Levitt (see above) modelled his solution off the British system. He proposed it as a way for the US government to encourage responsible saving over gambling.

Awhile ago I about the idea of creating a penny auction website that sells Certificates of Deposit. It would be just like the silly penny auction sites now, where you pay $.01 to make a bid, and each bid increases the length of the auction. When the auction finally expires whoever has the final bid pays that price and gets the CD. Thought it would be a way to get people to transfer more wealth to savings by committing to CDs while purchasing them at discounted rates.