Good Morning, I hope you are all well.

This month I’ve included something slightly different, both in terms of content and media with a link to the latest ‘Strategy chat pack. ’ – this is how Mike and his Senior Leadership team provide updates to Society colleagues on our strategy and performance across key metrics.

To get the most from this I recommend listening to the podcast (20 mins), you can also scan this QR code to listen.

Mike is joined by both the Director of Savings and Director of Mortgages to help tell the story about what we’ve done and what’s coming next. There’s also supporting slides which tell some of the story.

I have mixed the order up a little, and this month’s usual savings and mortgages sections are much briefer as a result of the high level overviews included in the chat pack.

Network update

On the subject of strategy, I’ve issued a number of separate updates related to this just recently. The update to agency commercial terms, and branch opening hours are all a key part of our Blueprint and ambition to sustain our retail network for the future, and allow us to continue that face to face commitment in a changing landscape, when many others are choosing the opposite. The key focus of our retail network is savings, and the twin aims within this to attract and retain balances. To enable us to do this effectively, we are further streamlining our product offering to underline our role as a savings provider, next week’s retail brief will outline these changes and your Development Manager will be asking you to lead this out to your teams.

Marketing

In July, there will be some new campaign material coming your way, to promote our partnership with Age UK. This will include a new ‘Always On’ Campaign Poster and a Fixed Rate Charity Bond Poster to raise funds for Age UK. Look out for the retail briefing pack in the next few weeks which will explain all you need to know.

We have also developed some great supporting material for those that wish to run some ‘Outreach Events’. Invitations, Community Board Posters, Pavement Posters and Banner Stands will be available to order soon – again a full briefing back will follow with great tips for organising your event and the supporting material available.

Also, if you have a first birthday or one ending in a “0” or a “5” this year, why not hold a birthday celebration (once any restrictions have been lifted and it is safe to do so). We have invites, posters and press adverts that you can order through your Development Manager. It’s a great way to say thank you to your loyal customers and build even more local awareness. If you have a birthday coming up, from July we’ll email you with more information on this tool kit we’ve created, which will help attract as many people to come along as possible. You’ll receive this a few months in advance to give you plenty of time for planning. If you have missed a birthday in lockdown but want to recognise and promote this, then that is an option too – please speak to your Development Manager.

New agency

We have this week opened our 111^th agency, so welcome to Threshold Financial Services, our newest agency partners who opened this weekend in Exeter following a branch conversion.

Savings

Agency balances have increased by an average of 6.96% so far in 2021 and 109 agencies are in positive growth. As alluded to in previous digests, the performance from agencies and our other channels (plus lending success) has prompted us to change our savings ambitions (upwards) and we are now aiming for growth of £2.3bn this year. This increased appetite is good news for you as we will continue to have attractive on-sale products, our back book rates have been increased twice this year so they stand at 5x the BOE base rate – which will help you to both attract and retain funds. The majority of you have hit the growth target you set with your Development Manager at the start of the year, so they will be discussing how far you can stretch this ambition like we have done as a group. Last year's blog content on T&C  activity could be built into your revised plan as well as this month’s content on local marketing

Another strong month on fixed rate retention at above 95%, the percentage going into default products continued to drop month on month, with the percentage moving to variable increasing again as we see our members taking advantage of our loyalty products and strong rates on our back book mentioned above.

Mortgages

The new referral process has seen an uplift in referral volumes – at the time of writing with a week to go, June has been the best month of 2021 so far, however with 17 referrals across the network, I’m sure there are still untapped opportunities out there. As well as the new process we also launched some training material and I’d be interested in any feedback on this, and if there is anything else that would support your teams and increase the output, and of course your earning potential.  

Community

 Small Change Big Difference:

• We’ve seen uptake rates climb up to 42% overall with agencies reaching 39%. It would be fantastic to keep that momentum growing to see month on month improvements towards our overall goal of 50%.
• The Quarter 2 Charitable Foundation deadline is approaching on 30 June. You can expect to hear outcomes of Quarter 2 nominations towards the beginning of August.
• Look out for news over the coming weeks about the charities benefitting from the new strategic Charitable Foundation Fund, part of the £800,000 investment by Board into our communities.

Age UK:

• It’s the final few days of Run Your Age fundraising campaign and as a business we’re wanting to reach £15,000 as our final figure! So, get those extra steps in and pounds raised to help us smash through that goal, we’re already at over £11,000 so every penny counts. Your Development Manager Team have all been out pounding the streets and have done brilliantly and are on track to achieve a huge amount – thanks to you all for your generous sponsorship of them.
• In the banking hall, it’s all about the summer fundraising activities! Your teams have sunflower seed POS items, sweepstakes packs to get up and running, helping to sow a little happiness with our customers whilst raising vital funds.
• With the funds paid in to end of June our retail contribution for the partnership is a fantastic £37,354 with over £20,000 raised this year of which £2,642 is from our agency network.
• Just under 40% of agencies are involved with the Age UK partnership currently versus nearer to 50% in previous years. Get in touch with community@ybs.co.uk if you would like further support in getting your fundraising going.
• As a business we’ve raised over £280,000 and as of this month, Age UK have supported over 130 older people to gain great financial wellbeing through the Building Better Lives Programme. The 1-2-1 bespoke sessions have helped unlock £268,500 of potential benefit entitlement so far, an average of £2,000 per older person.

 Money Minds:

• During Volunteers’ Week we reached out to retail colleagues to promote delivery of our financial education programme, Money Minds, in local primary schools. We’ve already seen 12 Key Stage 1 & 2 Money Minds sessions booked in! If your agency would like to reach into your local community using the Money Minds materials for primary school children you can contact community@ybs.co.uk and we’ll sign post you to more information.

Community Engagement Leads:

• As part of the 800K purposeful investment in our communities, three new roles were created to help drive our community initiatives in our retail network. As mentioned in our last update to you, Kerry Shaw, up until very recently a Development Manager for our agencies, has joined the Community Team to help support our North Region and our agency network. She’ll be connecting with teams and helping to drive engagement and provide support over the next year.

I hope you enjoyed this month’s update, feedback welcome as always, enjoy the summer.

Thanks

Dave