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Have your say in our Annual General Meeting

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is the meeting we hold each year for members and provides a great opportunity to voice their opinion and vote on important matters that help shape how the Society is run.

About the Annual General Meeting 2023

About our AGM 2023

Our Annual General Meeting 2023 was held on Wednesday 26 July at our Head Office in West Bromwich. Members were also able to watch the AGM online via live stream.

View the results
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AGM 2023 questions and answers

These questions and answers include those raised at the AGM event and via the AGM inbox.

AGM Voting and Rules


Why is there only a single selection of candidates to vote for?

Those nominated by the Society to serve as Board Directors for the next twelve months, whether Executive or Non-Executive Directors, are recommended to our members as they are considered to have the necessary skills, experience and knowledge to ensure we can deliver our Purpose and objectives. However, it remains at the discretion of individual members as to whether or not they choose to vote for those nominated Directors.

If a Member wishes to nominate an alternative Board Director, the Society’s Rules allow a Member to have a resolution proposing such a nomination moved on their behalf at an AGM, subject to the qualifying criteria under the Rules being met.

We also advertise our Non-Executive Director vacancies on our website as and when they become available. We would encourage anyone who wishes to be considered for a Non-Executive Board position, and believes that they meet the criteria, to apply.

Can you explain the new Special Resolution we’re voting for?

The purpose of the Special Resolution is to provide a clarification of the Society’s Rules for our members in relation to each of the potential scenarios that would follow in the event of the death of a member.

In particular, the Rules are now clear that AGM packs will not be sent out on the death of a sole member account holder unless we have received satisfactory evidence of entitlement to vote from the personal representative.


Branches


Are the opening hours for branches reviewed regularly?

Branch footfall is continuing to reduce and we need to balance the costs in continuing to operate branches but without passing these onto to our members who do not use our branches. This has been achieved by reducing branch operating hours in some branches, and ensuring Flagship branches are open for longer periods.

Flagship branches have longer operating hours and are those with higher footfall/customer usage. Branches form a large part of our approach and appeal and we are determined to keep them open.


Directors Remuneration


Can you clarify the remuneration period for Alex Pawley, your Chief Financial Officer?

The remuneration for Alex Pawley, our Chief Financial Officer, reflects both his previous as role as Divisional Director of Treasury and Finance, as well as his appointment as Chief Financial Officer from 1 January 2023.


Diversity


How are you making diversity a priority?
Do you have a diversity network internally?

Supporting the rich diversity of our colleagues and customers is key to us providing a great service, both as a financial provider and an employer. By having a diverse workforce, we know we’ll be better equipped to serve you and our local communities. As such, our equity, inclusion and diversity work continues to be a priority for us.

Our colleague led equity, inclusion and diversity group, Connect, plays a key role in raising awareness and creating an environment where all employees from different backgrounds feel welcomed, supported and valued. Importantly, the group is co-sponsored by our Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Westhoff, and Chief People Office, Sophie Pazzaglia, and therefore has a direct link to Board and the Executive Committee.

Over the last 12 months, Connect have held a range of awareness events, such as an Autism awareness workshop and Pride celebrations, supported our technology team to join Reed’s Women in Technology mentoring programme and have built partnerships with local schools and colleges to facilitate work experience and job application workshops for young people with additional needs. The group will be building on this work in the year ahead as we launch our refreshed equity, inclusion and diversity strategy.

Can you explain more about the diversity of your Board?

We have four female Non-Executive Directors – Julie Hopes (appointed April 2016), Vicky Mitchell (appointed April 2018), Lynne Shamwana (appointed February 2019) and Anne Gunther (appointed November 2021). This equates to 40% female representation on our Board.

In 2021, we also began reporting ethnic representation across our colleague base and management group. In our latest Report and Accounts, we reported that 10% of Board members, 16% of senior management and 35% of other colleagues were from an ethnic minority background. Representation at Board and Senior Management levels has fallen slightly, and whilst these groups are of relatively small populations, this is an area of focus where we are looking to improve.

The Society is committed to having an appropriately qualified and experienced Board and is mindful of the benefits of having Directors from a range of backgrounds. Any decision on Board appointments always needs to be led by the candidate’s sector experience and skills, but continued improvement in diversity will be a paramount criterion.

We are signatories to the Women in Finance and Race at Work Charters as we support their sentiments and recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce at all levels.

How many of your members are from diverse backgrounds?

To comply with UK GDPR (data protection), we can only collect data from our members that is necessary for the purpose we are processing the data for i.e. if it affects the management of their accounts. Therefore, we don’t collect diversity data.

There may be occasions where information relating to health data are collected but this is only collected to be able to support members who require additional support. This is also only collected with the consent of the member.

However, with our main operating area being one of the most diverse regions in the UK, having 35% of our colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds in our frontline teams helps us reflect the richly diverse communities we serve. In England and Wales, ethnic minority representation is 19% and the West Midlands is 23% (Census 2021), so we’re above these levels overall.

To support a range of diversities, we do offer a range of alternative communication formats should members need them i.e. Braille, large print, translation services etc. Members can contact us in branch or over the phone to request these services.


Financial performance


The Society has had a strong year however in the accounts there appears to be a large provision for bad loans.

Our new Board came together in 2009 and inherited a difficult legacy commercial book with a debt level of circa £1.7bn.

The Board had a choice to make and it could have done what other lenders have chosen to do in such a situation – exit the commercial portfolio and remove it from the balance sheet. This would have involved a sale to a distressed asset buyer. However, the cost of such an approach would have been enormous (loss of £0.60 in the £1).

Therefore the Board took a different, albeit challenging approach, which was for the Society to manage the portfolio itself as it felt that this would achieve much better value on behalf of our members.

Over time it does mean there will be fluctuations in the commercial portfolio performance due to prevailing macro-economic conditions. We are also required to model our provisions against potential losses caused by wider economic changes.


Online services


Why don’t you offer an online service for savings members?

We’ve recently launched our savings portal, which allows saving members to have a single view of their accounts. This can be set up by calling us and setting up a PIN. Those who have already registered for our automated telephone service can use the same PIN and don’t need to register again.

We also intend to invest significantly in our online approach whilst ensuring we use the correct technology at the right time. It will be important that we identify the right online strategy and supporting technology to deliver the best solution for our members. The strategy will emerge over the next twelve months and be delivered over the next four years.


Savings rates


What are you doing to offer good returns for your savers?

We do everything we can to offer the best savings rates and products for our savers and our products are under regular review. However, as a responsible business we need to carefully balance our savings funds with our lending. If we increased our rates more frequently, we would risk being inundated with savings funds and would not be able to lend the funds to borrowers at the same rate. Instead the funds would have to be placed with the Bank of England and we’d only receive a modest return.

In practice, we have to reduce savings rates to ensure we don’t have too much liquidity; this is not an uncommon concern for financial services businesses. Where we use our skills to hedge the funds used for borrowers and savers, we use market expectations of interest rates to lock in returns sooner.

We would always recommend that our members speak to us to discuss the range of savings products we offer as there may be products better suited to your needs.


Structure


What’s the rationale for creating the Chief Operating Officer role? What happened to the Group Finance & Operations Director role?

We’ve been working on developing our strategy for the next phase of the West Brom, specifically how we push forward on our Purpose-led agenda. One inevitable output of this is the need to invest and the Board is committed in doing so. Not only will this cover systems and processes, but also the people resource we require.

To start this process, we looked at the leadership team and reshaped its structure. Previously the role of Group Finance & Operations Director was primarily focused on operational processes. The Board identified that the Society needed to move strategically to a more technology driven approach and the role of Group Finance & Operations Director was effectively divided in to two new roles: Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

Alex Pawley was appointed to the Chief Financial Officer role in January 2023 and Martin Boyle was appointed to the Chief Operating Officer role in April this year, with both bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to the roles.

Frequently Asked Questions

To be eligible to vote at the West Brom AGM you must:

a. be at least 18 years old on the date of the AGM; and

b. be a sole or first-named account holder in our records; and

c. either;

i. have a balance of at least £100 in your investment share account(s) with the Society on 31 March 2023, and have continued to hold an investment share account(s) with the Society between 31 March 2023 and the voting date; or

ii. have owed the Society not less than £100 on your mortgage account(s) on 31 March 2023 and on the voting date.

No matter how many savings or mortgage accounts you may have, you are only entitled to vote once. To be eligible to vote, the Society Rules require that you are a sole or first-named account holder in the Society’s records. Therefore if you have a joint account, the AGM pack will only be addressed to the first-named account holder.

Our online voting and live stream sites are hosted by Civica Election Services (CES) on our behalf. CES is an independent provider of election and voting services and act as our scrutineers. The cookie and security policies on the sites may differ from our own, so please read them carefully.

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