YORKSHIRE BUILDING SOCIETY
quick-to-market fintech companies continue to dissolve , a natural endpoint to our conversations sees a discussion on how far YBS will head down the digital road .
For McCleod , the overriding vision is simply for YBS to become the number one in the market . “ Our vision is to make YBS the best provider of mortgage and savings experiences ,” he says . “ To do this we have to compete with everybody and make sure our offering is better than theirs . If you follow that through logically , we will get to our one-day mortgage experience , and brokers will be able to deal with more customers .” How much digitisation this will take , is an intriguing question , and one that McCleod believes is an important conversation to be had .
Part of this conundrum is neatly
summarised by Mortimer . “ This is still a complex process ,” he says , “ and we do not want to trivialise or oversimplify a mortgage application . We need to convey the important messages – this is a big decision for somebody to make in their life . This said , there are ways to communicate this that can help customers navigate the process much better . It is a constant evolution .”
And it is this balancing of the scales which White has pressed from the beginning – the need to excel in all channels , not forgetting that one of those still lies in-branch .
He concludes : “ Do we want to become more digital ? Yes . Do we still believe in branches ? Yes . We want to provide a seamless experience across all of our channels , recognising that our digital channels are going to grow .” 150 May 2017