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>> PHILLIP: Aldermore is now nearly well it's three years old on Sunday.
And when our bank lends eight hundred and fifty million to SMEs, we have six hundred
million lent out to more than four and a half thousand home mortgage owners, we have one
point six billon pounds worth of retail deposits from over seventy thousand deposit customers
and the bank is approaching the balance sheet now, total balance sheet of two billion.
We set out three years ago to build a bank that was absolutely straight forward in providing
a no gimmicks service to consumers and to SMEs. A very dynamic offering and speed of
service is something that all SMEs are concerned about and if you say no to them then they
want to know quickly. And we felt that we needed to provide an expert service and something
that was fundamentally liable.
As a new bank, we're completely incumbent by legacy assets and we have no legacy bad
debts, we have no legacy systems, we have no note-sy branches. We focus completely and
utterly on our customers.
And because we always employ a human under writing approach, we don't have any credit
score in our business.
We're able to offer our consumers a tailored approach.
A number of SMEs are far more cautious about borrowing and they're sitting on a average
of a hundred and ninety thousand pounds in credit in their bank account because if you
imagine that you are an SME and you want to start to invest, if you can't get that bank
lending or your concerned about the general economy because there's no liquidity in the
marketplace, then you're going to sit back for a while and make sure that you ride this
out.
So, as the champion of the SME market, we felt that we could address this particular
area for SMEs.
>> SIMON: Doing something in the SME savings has long been an ambition of mine. So we spoke
with over one thousand businesses with a broad spread both in terms of geography, the length
of time they'd been operating, the type of industry and their size.
We wanted to understand in particular, businesses' attitudes towards savings, their views on
existing providers and to the extent which they considered
switching.
Overwhelmingly, they are not happy with what they've got now but to date, they haven't
been bothered to do anything about it.
One in five of them said that switching accounts is just too much hassle and is too time consuming.
Ninety per cent of businesses that we spoke with do not believe they earn a competitive
rate of interest on their savings.
Over two thirds of them actually then said as well that they're not getting the level
of customer service that they would expect from their savings provider.
So, at a time when businesses are holding more cash than ever because of the economic
uncertainty, when inflation is eroded in the value of that cash, we have a population of
businesses who are dissatisfied with their existing business arrangements, don't like
the service but yet perceive that by doing something about it is far too much hassle
for too little value.
So introducing to you today, Aldermore Business Savings
Over the last twelve months, we've built from scratch as Philip said, what is actually a
state of the art platform on operational capability that aims to deliver exactly what businesses
have said they are looking for.
The offer is simple yet effective and it comprises three main elements.
Above all, Aldermore Business Savings is great value, it's all about consistently good value.
Uncomplicated products, that are guaranteed to always pay a good rate, even when you're
not paying attention. We don't insist on that you open another account or move your current
account to us, you simply set up a link to your existing bank account and take advantage
of the rates.
There is a huge preference for online account opening in particular, compared with either
brand or phone applications. Yet there appear to be no savings accounts out there where
you can as a new customer, you can truly open your account online.
With Aldermore, there are no trekking into a branch in town, there's no aimless meetings
that you need to go through, we've done away with the countless forms and the bureaucracy
that is often typified with business savings account opening and there's nothing to post
to us.
Instead, our accounts are opened fully online and end-to-end in what is only fifteen minutes.
At the end of that process, the customer has everything they need to make a payment straight
away so that means that the same day, funds will be in the account and earning interest.
Its simple, easy to understand and good value.
And we don't believe that there is a quicker savings account out there that you could open
in the UK.
Businesses have told us that they like the reassurance of having somebody to talk to
when they need it.
We're available out of hours, eight to eight so that means you don't have to take time
away from dealing with your customers, you can call our UK customer services team on
a local number. And with leverage technologies, so that if you happen to get cut off or you
need to phone back within you know, an hour or so, the technology will recognise that
and re-direct you back to the same person that you spoke with previously.
I'm particularly proud and excited to be launching a business that provides a solution to these
fundamental issues. It provides real value to SMEs at a time when they need it and it
marks our entry into the business savings market and it's the first manifestation approach
that we believe will truly shake up the business savings market.
>> PHILLIP: We've continued to lend both to home owners and SMEs through this period of
turbulence, we really do consider ourselves as the champions, the British champions of
both savers, home-owners and SMEs in the UK.
We are experts in the SME market and in the savings industry and this launch of our deposit
products for SMEs is our first step in shaking up the service and wonderful service that
British SMEs can get from British banks.