Hello all, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and are feeling refreshed and ready for 2023. Lots going on this quarter with ISA season just around the corner. There's also updates to our blueprint, faster payments in agencies and new monitors. 

Savings

ISA Season

• After years of low interest rates and the differential in rates and products being so small, the ISA season in 2023 is forecast to be bigger than it has been for a long time.
• Since the introduction of the Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) in April 2016, which allows basic rate taxpayers to earn £1,000 of savings income tax free (£500 for higher rate taxpayers) many savers have questioned the value of using an ISA for their savings.
• Whilst the PSA is currently adequate for most savers to avoid paying tax without using an ISA, with savings rates rising this will change the way savers think.

What are our plans?

The Society has high expectations for the ISA period between March and May:

• We expect to see £1.75Bn total new money inflow and to open 75,000 new ISA accounts. 28,000 of these being opened with ISA transfers in.
• We expect the majority (60%) to come from our branch and agency retail outlets.
• For comparison we opened 55,000 ISAs in the whole of 2022.
• To help meet these ambitions, there will be a competitive range of ISA products available from early March including a loyalty proposition.

Branch plans include:

• Increasing the number of branches open on a Saturday during March and April.
• Increasing appointment capacity, during the week across all branches in normal operating hours and post 5pm. This is being facilitated by using overtime, restricting annual leave, utilising telephone meetings, reducing both community and wider business supporting activities, undertaking proactive outbound calling activity – all aimed at increasing capacity and business opportunity. 
• Please consider what you can do during this period to capitalise on this opportunity.

This ISA season is an example of our ‘Savings Supercharged’ priority and will ensure we get off to a great start in growing our savings balances in 2023 but this focus will be sustained all year both before and after ISA season. Our overall average savings rate is currently 64bps higher than the rest of the market, with our Instant access savings rate is 92bps higher than the rest of the market.

Blueprint

In December I mentioned events we’d held for YBS people leaders, and this month’s blog  shares the outputs from these sessions, with links to videos from senior leaders and a special guest. This pack has been shared with your teams to be covered in the retail briefing slot for the last two weeks.

Network Updates

Faster Payments

We’re increasing the Faster Payment limits in Agencies on Wednesday 22 March to align with those currently in the Branch network.

Why are we doing this?

• Agencies currently have different transaction limits to branches, which is creating a poor customer and colleague experience.  Aligning the faster payment limits will create a more consistent experience for customers.

There will be a Retail Brief on Wednesday 15 February with further information. This will detail all mandatory training requirements to be completed and signed off prior to the change.

Q-flow

We’re introducing a Savings Appointment Booking System called Q-Flow to the Branch network. This system is already working well for customers and colleagues in Mortgages, so we’ve made some changes and it’s now ready to go live for Savings.

Why are we doing this?

• How we currently manage appointments is very manual and provides limited information for the organisation.
• Q-Flow will provide a more professional and modern experience for customers, with the option to receive text and email notifications about their appointments.
• It will also give customers the option to book appointments via our call centre and opens the future opportunity to book branch appointments online.

There’s nothing extra for you do, it's just to let you know it will begin to land in some branches from Monday 6 February and the Call Centre later in the year. There are currently no plans to introduce this to the Agency network due to system restrictions, but we may revisit this.

Monitors

• We'll shortly be refreshing our monitors in the agency network. Replacing the small old monitors, that we know our colleagues and customers can struggle with plus create video capability to allow our agencies to join MS Teams video calls.
• Agencies will receive new standard monitors for counter and customer areas, and one camera monitor.
• This was recently successfully piloted at Pudsey agency (see picture below), and we will soon commence the pre-deployment checks to enable the rollout to the rest of the network

What do you need to do?

Please keep an eye out for messages and cooperate with information requests, so this roll out can be completed successfully.

Agency Proprietor Council

• In 2019 we introduced an Agency Proprietor Council, and a small number of volunteer proprietors who met quarterly, and periodic updates were shared.
• After a break of several month we recently met to discuss how this can recommence in 2023.
• One of the initial aims was for the Council to represent the wider proprietor population, but to do this it requires greater input. To help with this we've agreed that I'll circulate the minutes of each meeting to all proprietors, so you can see what has been discussed and any outputs.
• You can then feed into a nominated Council member to help set the agenda for the next meeting.
• With 8 proprietors on the Council, we can add a couple of new members if anyone wants to be involved and is happy to be a point of contact for 10-12 others on an ongoing basis.

• If you're interested in being a member please get in touch either direct, or via your RAM, by 15 February. Once the members are finalised, I will share the minutes of the last meeting, the list of representatives, and who your contact will be if you want to suggest agenda items for the next meeting on 24 March.

Community

Age UK

• We are now entering the final 5 months of fundraising for our Charity Partner Age UK.
• To date, we have raised £911,705, fully funding the Building Better Lives programme until May 2023.
• The agency network has supported raising over £30,000 since that start of the partnership.
• All additional funds will support funding calls to the Age UK National Advice Line.
• Colleagues from across the Society have been upskilled in the issues older people face and are already referring members and individuals to the Age UK Advice Line – business cards with the advice line number are available in every branch and agency and through colleagues that speak to customers on the phone.

Cause collections

• As a Society, we're uniquely positioned and at the heart of our local communities to support those who need it. That's why we want to use our nationwide high street and office locations to collect items which can help those struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
• Between now and the end of March, we're encouraging you to set up and/or donate to cause collections for the food bank Trussell Trust or the hygiene poverty charity Hygiene. To find out how to get involved, please read more here.  

Thanks,

Dave