Up close and personal April 2015

Banks - too big to care?I’ll be honest, we don’t get that many complaints and I quite like it that way. I like to think that we have our Customers’ interest at heart and we’re doing our best for them.

There are a number of ways that you can think of complaints. If you have battalions of unhappy complaining Customers, then clearly you’re doing something wrong. If, on the other hand, you virtually never get a complaint, it could be because your service is fabulous or possibly because you give your Customers the impression that if they complain, you are so disinterested that nothing would happen anyway, so what’s the point? So if we don’t have many complaints is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Of course you have to factor into all of this the national psyche where most of us would probably rather die than complain. You must have had it in a restaurant where the chicken has the taste and consistency of boiled rubber and when asked by a waitress how your meal is, you say “fine” or “lovely” because you don’t want to create a scene (very British) and fixing the problem is simply going to prolong your attendance in the ghastly place. Let’s get out, and wreak our revenge on the place by telling everybody we know just how terrible it was (even more British!).

For a Building Society, providing a service that is equivalent to the rubber chicken experience often results in the Customer taking their funds

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from one Bank or Building Society and placing them somewhere else, seething but silent. This is why we ask Customers who close accounts with us why they have done so. Not so that we can arm wrestle them into staying; if they’re cheesed off the damage is already done, but so we can learn something that might help us better serve other Customers.

Of course, people have lots of perfectly sensible reasons for moving their money elsewhere, to make a big purchase or fund a holiday, or simply to spread money so that all of their funds are protected by the Financial Services CompensationScheme.

Dick JenkinsChief Executive

Another of the Chancellors’ rabbits, this time to help Savers! The main measure is to eliminate tax for all Savers on the first £1,000 of interest earned by Savers. Given the level of interest rates these days, that means that most Savers will no longer be required to pay any tax on their savings! Other measures have been put forward to help would-be first time buyers saving for a deposit and there is more flexibility being offered to ISA customers.

A Budget for Savers?We will be working with the Government and its agencies to understand exactly how these measures will impact on its saving Customers in the coming weeks and months. Mark Wiltshaw, Head of Savings and Investments, welcomes these changes, “It’s about time that those who have done the right thing; been cautious and saved money get a break. I am sure this will go down very well with our Members”.

I can’t get offended or hypersensitive because Customers have decided to take money out to purchase a new carpet! But I do want to know if people are disappointed with us.

So what we try to do is give people plenty of opportunities to tell us if we’re not doing things as well as we should be. We have complaints leaflets in our Branches, clear instructions of how to complain on our website and we give people a chance to complete an annual survey. We survey new Customers when they join and Customers who leave us. We look for comments and compliments as well as complaints too. We give ‘complaints training’ to our staff so that they can spot a complaint at a hundred paces if they come across one.

All of these comments, compliments and complaints get funnelled together into a report which is looked at by the “Conduct Committee”, a quarterly meeting which takes a Customer-eye view of our business. All of the comments, compliments and complaints are read by the Society’s senior managers and one of our non-executive Board members, and we look to see what we can do from the feedback that we get to improve the way we do things. Some things that bother Customers are easy to sort out and some things (whilst sounding simple enough) are unbelievably difficult. But we don’t sit on our hands. We try to do something where we can. We try to be honest about what’s gone wrong and stick to the rule “If you mess up, you own up and you clear up”.

Our Regulator now collects data on complaints from Banks and Building Societies. It shows a remarkable pattern in that whilst Building Societies account for 20-25% of the Mortgage and Savings market, they account for only 5% of the complaints, and a much smaller proportion of Building Society complaints than Bank complaints get upheld by the Ombudsman. We also see data on fines for poor conduct and Building Societies have only paid 0.3% of all of the regulatory fines between 2010 and 2014, compared with 99.7% by the Banks. I think these statistics say something fundamental about the difference between the culture of Banks and Buildings Societies.

Of course, we do sometimes get things wrong, but when that happens at Bath Building Society, our people are genuinely sorry. And I’m sorry, too. If I ran a big Bank, I doubt I’d even know about an individual complaint.

And there’s the difference.

In housing circles 3rd December 2014 is likely to go down in history as the date that the UK’s ludicrous system of Stamp Duty was finally reformed. After years of lobbying for a change which we had assumed had gone in one ear and out the other, it surprised just about everybody in the industry; a rabbit, as it were, pulled from a hat. It is difficult to tell exactly what the Chancellors’ motives were in undertaking this feat of magic, but it will be a very welcome signal to the housing market.Overnight (literally) the new rules did away with the “slab system” in which house purchases within given price bands were all taxed at the same percentage, which caused there to be sudden leaps in duty paid when you edged over into the next price bracket. This has been replaced by a more progressive system in which the duty paid increases more gradually. Effectively what the Chancellor has done is to make Stamp Duty cheaper for most people looking to purchase property up to about £1.1m, but to make it a lot more expensive for those buying properties above that level. Although there are winners and losers in this formula, overall the treasury is going to be losing a substantial amount of revenue, given that the vast majority of houses are priced below £1.1m.

The card is a unique discount card scheme with a focus on promoting quality, independent, local businesses in Bath. The scheme is organised by The Bath Independent Guest House Association in partnership with Bath Building Society. Currently there are over 70 Vendors in the scheme in and around Bath and a list of current offers can be found in one of our Branches or at www.bathrewardcard.com There is also guidance on using the card, restrictions on group bookings, availability and restrictions. You can pop into any Bath Building Society to pick up your Bath Reward Card and start saving.

Stamp Duty

Our AGM is at midday on Tuesday 28 April at The Assembly Rooms in Bath.

If you have received the AGM pack by post or online then you are entitled to vote. The Society donates 50p for every voting form received to Bath Gateway Out & About, a charity that provides age appropriate social and leisure activities for adults with learning disabilities. You can also vote online and save the planet! Go to our website at www.bathbuildingsociety.co.uk

Have you voted yet?

We are delighted to announce the launch of The Bath Reward Card to our Members.

Nine Charities and Community Groups from the local area were awarded funds from our Charity Awards scheme. Plus a further four organisations received a pair of Bath Building Society hot air balloon tickets which can be used to raise funds.

Chief Executive Dick Jenkins. Dick said:“The Awards are very important to us and are a way for the Society to “give something back” to our local community. It is amazing the work some of these organisations do and the local people that they help and on such little funding, I’m just glad we can help!”

One of the projects benefitting from an award of £1,000 was Bath Gateway Out & About and it was also been chosen to be our Charity of the Year (July 2014 – July 2015). The Charity provides help and support to people aged 18+ with a learning disability; which is extended to include their families, dependants and carers. It also promotes awareness of learning disabilities and encourages independence amongst persons with a learning disability Becky Morgan is the club leader of Bath Gateway Out & About which is a weekly club for adults with a wide

Community work

Full list of the 2014 winners:

Greenlinks, Bath ............................................................ Bath Gateway Out & About .. Keynsham & District Mencap ......................................Bath FoodCycle ..............................................................The Bath Toy Library .........................................................Bristol Male Voice Choir, Bristol .......................................Articulate, Bath ...................................................................Cambrook House ...............................................................Bath Mind ................................................DanceVoice .............................................Friends of St Saviours Infants School .Golden Oldies .....................................

£1,500£1,000 / Charity of the Year

£1,000 £1,000

£500£500£500£500

2 x Balloon Tickets 2 x Balloon Tickets2 x Balloon Tickets2 x Balloon Tickets

We had another great year in 2014 working alongside our local community; from sponsoring the Fireworks Display and Bath in Bloom, to handing out over £7,500 to Charities and Community Groups that entered our Annual Charity Awards.

range of learning disabilities and provides support enabling its members to access social and leisure activities. Becky said: “We, the volunteers and all the members of Bath Gateway Out & About are absolutely delighted that Bath Building Society is awarding us £1,000. This will be put to very good use as it will go towards the running costs of our very special club that our members so very much enjoy. We are all so very grateful for this award. We are also very honoured that Bath Building Society has decided to take us on as their chosen Charity and we very much look forward to an eventful year ahead”.

Jon Sweeting, Branch & Agency Manager

8.30amAfter a drive from my home in Corsham, I park my car at Queen Square and poke my head around various departments wishing people a good morning.

9am-12pmI always start the day with a catch up with the Branch team, normally over a cup of coffee so we can discuss anything from the day before and any priorities for the coming working day. I complete any remedial work which may be outstanding from the day before and read our intranet page which includes daily society-wide announcements and information. I peruse my diary to plan my workload, catch up on my e-mails and prioritise these as best I can to complete my to-do list for the day. I have contact with my line manager every day to cover any issues we need to address, and discuss topics such as staff development, coaching, compliance and risk management, as well as any sales and service issues.

12pm-3pmThe next part of the day is spent training, including development and an exchange of ideas with the Branch staff, concentrating on their individual training needs thus allowing them to feel more confident in their role. I leave for 20 minutes to get a breath of fresh air and have a walk through Queen Square to grab some lunch. This is then eaten at my desk whilst reviewing what progress I have made towards achieving my goals for the day, and prioritising remaining tasks for the afternoon.

3pm-5pmI have a meeting with a customer to discuss their accounts; sometimes this is done on the telephone and sometimes in person. I enjoy the interaction and always try to be available for customers if necessary. I will also check in with the Agencies to see how they are doing, what’s going well for them and what isn’t. My afternoons as a norm are spent working on various projects. A benefit of working for a smaller organisation is that you can get involved with a lot of different aspects.

5pm As the day starts to wind down I will chat to the team about what has gone well and what hasn’t and any learning points we may get from this. We make sure that the tills are balanced and everything is locked away appropriately. The Society’s doors may be closed but I still have tasks to complete. I will finish off what I can do and provide updates to the senior management team where necessary.

There is a fantastic network of professionals within Bath, and quite often a networking event in the evening. I will often show my head for an hour at these events to represent Bath Building Society and bounce ideas off various other professionals.

6.30pm Time to do battle with the Bath traffic and head home; it’s been a busy day.

A day in the life of...

Head Office:15 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN.

Investment enquiries:Telephone:01225 423271Fax:01225 446914Email:investments@bibs.co.uk

Mortgage enquiries:Telephone:01225 475702Fax:01225 424590Email:mortgages@bibs.co.uk

Web:www.bathbuildingsociety.co.uk

Telephone calls may be recorded to help the Society to maintain high standards of service delivery.

Bath Investment & Building Society is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, Registration Number 206026.