Personal Banking support
- As many shops are only accepting, or are encouraging, contactless payments during the outbreak, we are extending contactless payments to more customers, including those holding basic bank accounts (our Foundation account). The cards for Foundation accounts were designed for customers who might have difficulty accessing banking services but they were not previously contactless enabled. This move will provide customers with a safer way to pay and helps reduce the spread of the virus.
- We have extended the period during which customers can apply for a mortgage payment holiday until 31 October 2020. To date, we have processed over 200,000 mortgage repayment holidays.
- Introduced a £500 interest-free overdraft buffer (almost 58,000 customers have taken up this offer)
- Finally, we will be match funding the £3.2 million our Reward Account customers have donated to the National Emergencies Trust, to bring the total to £6.4 million. Our target is £10 million, so we are well on track!
Business Banking support
- As of June 5th, we have approved 160,150 applications with a cumulative value of £4.95bn under the BBL scheme.
- On CBILS we have approved more than 13,034 applications with a total value of more than £2.9bn, while we have approved £416m through CLBILS.
- For larger customers, the bank has facilitated more than £6bn through CCFF and has a market share of 20% of CCFF issuances from the purchases by the BoE.
- Two thirds of our BBLS and CBIL lending has been directed outside London and the South East.
Support for colleagues:
- The vast majority of our staff will continue to work from home until at least the end of September (currently 50k working from home).
- We are preparing our offices and branches so they follow Government guidelines in order for us to attest them as “Covid secure workplaces”.
- We’ve redeployed and retrained hundreds of staff to support our colleagues on the front line and the majority of our telephony staff can now work from home.
- We’ve launched a Wellbeing Hub for all colleagues as we recognise the importance of health and wellbeing in our colleagues’ personal and work life during such a period of uncertainty. This includes a new virtual GP service for colleagues.
