Our Group Strategy
We’ve been helping consumers and businesses fulfil their ambitions for over 70 years and our strategy provides a framework to ensure we can successfully carry on doing this for the next 70 years.
Our vision
To be the most trusted specialist lender in the UK
Our purpose
To help more consumers and businesses fulfil their ambitions
Our strategic priorities
Simplify
Focus on core business units and use technology to deliver efficiency and better operational processes
Enhance Customer Experience
Improve the customer journey to increase retention and attract new customers to gain market share
Leverage Networks
Take advantage of our strong partnerships with introducers to drive growth
Enabled by technology
Take advantage of recent investments within our technology platforms to automate processes and streamline and enhance customer experience for our business partners via integration, and for our end customers, through self-service
Our strengths
Specialist
Expert
Diverse
Ambitious
Our values
Customer Focused
Risk Aware
Future Orientated
Teamwork
Ownership
Performance Driven
Stakeholders
Customers
Shareholders and investors
Employees
Business partners
Regulators
Communities and society
Our Strategic Progress
Simplify
- Initial Project Fusion target achieved, with £5 million annualised cost savings1
- Organisational redesign completed with IT and Operations consolidated under a single management structure
- New Project Fusion target announced at half year on track to achieve an additional £3 million annualised cost savings1 in 2025
- Delivered over 50% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 target for emissions one year early (since 2021)
Delivering our cost savings target improves our cost income ratio and return on equity
Enhance Customer Experience
- Digital-first approach for Savings, delivering an enhanced online application process
- Over 87% self-service adoption in Retail Finance, and app rollout to allow customer self-servicing
- Automated savings bond maturity process implemented
- Customer Feefo score of 4.7 stars and 4.6 stars for Trustpilot
Delivering cost-efficiency and balance sheet growth by retaining satisfied customers
Leverage Networks
- Extended contracts with key furniture and jewellery retailers in Retail Finance
- Extensive distribution relationships across consumer businesses
- Repeat business and client retention within Business Finance from established relationships
- Market share gains of new business in both Retail Finance and Vehicle Finance
Driving growth in net lending and net interest margin as our balance sheet mix moves towards consumer lending
Enabled by technology
- Vehicle Finance rate for risk platform launched, facilitating applicants to be matched to our products
- Use of AI tools and automated data gathering in complaints handling
- Savings app enhancements, with more transactional activity and over 30% of customers registered
- Platforms proven to be scalable and flexible with increased partner API integrations
A digital-first approach supports cost-efficiencies and growth capacity
1. £5.0 million cost savings relative to operating expenses for the 12 months ended December 2021. The additional £3.0 million savings will be relative to annualised operating expenses for the six months ended 30 June 2024