Dear Mike,

The yield curve would look slightly better if 12 months was 1.75% or alternatively if you wanted to be slightly more generous then 18 months could be 2.0%. Just a thought not crucially important.

John L Hales
alias blobby

Kind regards.

Thought so but thought it worth clarifying before people panic :-)

Yes current bonds are in a contract with Fidor and therefore cannot and will not be changed.

Presumably on New bonds and not changing rates on currently purchased bonds?

congrats UK-team. best MiMa

Wooo hoooo! Fantastic news :)

We are thrilled! :-)

Congratulations on the mention

One bank running a customer loyalty scheme reviews it annually and if a customer has dropped down to the next band they give them a month leeway to revert to their previous level to avoid being demoted.

Maybe if you were reviewing it on a monthly or quarterly basis you could give them a week to avoid being demoted.

Dear Mirow and Mike,

I too like this idea. I think a maximum 10% increase should be enough although exactly how the loyalty scheme should be structured I will have to give some thought to. Clients should be on top of their situation but first the Bank should send an email of any breach of agreement and give the person say 10 working days to put matters right. If the bank wants to go ahead with this idea then it should start a discussion group with it's proposals.

John L Hales
alias blobby

They should be made aware that the scheme is in place. However, warning someone they are about to go overdrawn or have gone overdrawn is a good idea, and in some banks is done by setting levels at which you wish to receive a balance alert. The balance alerts can be when your account drops to a certain level or indeed exceeds a certain level, and could be daily or weekly by text or email.

I agree we should encourage savings rather than borrowing. I do like this idea and its something that we as a bank can discuss further internally, then ask the community for further input. This is something that would need to be scored and set at the end of each month/quarter, do you think we need to make clients aware so they have the opportunity to make sure they are not overdrawn etc. or do you think this is something that a client should be on top of themselves?

Do you think it would be wise to increase the % based on how many family and friends clients invite up to a maximum of 10%?

As for a fair increase. I would say go for 10% not 20. You don't want to give too much away! :-)

I would see a scale of points such as
1 point for a debit card, internet banking, or similar, i.e. when it purely functionality and associated with an account and not an account in it's own right
2 points for a credit card, overdraft, loan, etc, i.e. an account where client is borrowing
3 points for a current account, savings bond, or other form of deposit account yet to be announced, i.e. when client is depositing money.

The logic is we should do more to encourage saving than borrowing, and if someone has say an account but are also overdrawn they still get points, but 3-2=1, so less points. It is not penalizing those with debt, as all points are worth something, but tilts the balance to encourage savings rather than debt.

Hi MIROW, many thanks for the ideas.

1. This is a great idea, if we incorporate this what point value would you give to each category. If we had Current account, Savings account, Mortgage account, Credit card, Personal loan, Debit card available? We could also incorporate the Community karma score which would help with those who don't want to take out a Loan/Credit card with Fidor, but are active in the community.

2. We of course like to thank everyone for recommending Fidor to family and friends, we currently offer a bonus for recommending and for the activites of your friends within the community, see https://www.fidorbank.uk/document-center/documents. If we set the rates below as Sophie has stated. What you see as a fair increase for those that invite friends 10%, 20% or another figure?

Dear Matthias,

Thanks for taking the time to drop me a note. It was greatly appreciated.

Best wishes

John L Hales
alias blobby

I am absolutly happy with that discussion and in particular rhe outcome of that discussion!

Dear Sophie,

I should have added that I liked your software for the new savings bond arrangement very much. You must have some very talented people to make the last minute changes which you did.

John L Hales
alias blobby

Dear Sophie,

You can count on my support and input (providing I am in good health, which I am) for as long as Fidor demonstrates the values and attitude it currently has. This approach is worth a lot to me and in my opinion to the world also.

The £100 bonus was in my account this morning and as promised I immediately invested it in a 9 month saving bond.

Thanks again and best wishes to you and Fidor.

John L Hales
alias blobby

Hi John - regarding the point around regular savers - I put up a product suggestion around that (and helping people reach saving goals) here https://community.fidorbank.uk/wanted_products/virtual-accounts-to-help-peopl

Happy to discuss!

Dear John,

We also think it looks much better! Rewarding community members for participating and helping us shape the present & the future of Fidor is part of Fidor philosophy.

We are lucky to have you in the community and be able to profit by such an extensive experience. We are very much looking forward for insightful further conversations in the community!

Finally, we agree with you, doing banking right is all about trust and it is what we are aiming to offer to our customers through our exchanges in the community.

All the best and see you soon in the community,
Sophie

Dear Sophie,

I am delighted with your response. I think the new yield curve looks much better. I am happy to have made a contribution and didn't expect any reward for this.

I am most grateful for the £100 bonus and as you suggest I will invest it in a 9 month saving bond.

Any help I can be in the future is always available to you and Fidor Bank. I have been in global banking and management consulting for over 40 years and I have had my eyes opened by the experiences I have been through. I was advisor to Goldman Sachs, Salomon Brothers and some 130 other banking institutions between 1985 and 1990 having initially been trained by Sir Siegmund Warburg (the founder of S.G. Warburg's in the UK) at the age of 22. He taught me that "My Word is my Bond" and made it clear to me that this is all I had. How right he was. It's a shame most bankers today don't realise this.

All the best.

John L Hales
alias Blobby

Hi Blobby,

Thank you very much for your thorough explanation and recommendation. As it happens I am in Munich today and had the chance to discuss your proposed changes with the board. We agree with your points and would therefore like to amend the savings bonds rates as follows.

Furthermore, we think the introduction of a 9-month savings bond is a great idea! Since you suggested a new duration and we have taken that suggestion on board, we would like to also credit you with a £100 bonus for your engagement. We hope you will invest it in a newly created 9-month savings bonds ;).

So to sum up, after opening up this discussion on Wednesday, we have now been able thanks to our community members to modify our interest rates according to your expectations, introduce a new product (9-month savings bond) and everything will be live this Friday. What a successful week :)

Below the rates that will be implemented.

3-month 1.00% (same)
6-month 1.20% (increased)
9-month 1.60% (new)
12-month 2.00% (same)
18-month 2.10% (same)
24-month 2.40% (same)
36-month 2.75% (same)

Best,
Sophie

Dear Mike and Sophie,

Thanks for your responses. I understand that from an asset and liability point of view you are well advised to be more attractive for 12 months or longer. However the yield curve still needs to make some sense to the saver. Why don't you think about 0.8% for 3 and less than 6 months, 1.2% for 6 and less than 9 months and 1.6% for 9 and less than 12 months with all other longer rates left as you suggested. Indeed a 3 month period is not much different to a call period from the Bank's point of view so an alternative could be starting with 1.0% after 6 months with 1.5% after 9 months again with the longer rates left the same. Both of these alternatives would provide a smoother yield curve.

I continue to believe a regular monthly savings plan could be more attractive to people than savings bonds and as Sophie says it would be cool to help and encourage people to reach their savings goals. As Sophie suggested I will put this forward as a product suggestion tomorrow

Jumping onto the discussion and your second suggestion John, I think the regular monthly savings plans idea is actually worth investigating. Would you like to initiate a discussion around it in the product suggestion group? We are currently rewarding our users on their current account balance but it could be quite cool to help people reach yearly saving goals.

hi blooby/John, many thanks for that comment. Very helpful! The reason for that jump between the 6 months and the 12 has to be searched in the durartions of our loanbook within our balance sheet. Not having the loanbook infront of you it is of course a tough challange to find out - but this is why I am sharing that information now. So, according to our Asset- and Liability Management we are well advised to be more attractive within the 12 months and longer durations.

Your rates look broadly ok. However there is a big jump between 6 months and twelve months. Is there a reason for this. I would have thought the yield curve would look smoother if 6 months was either 1.3% or 1.4%. I presume you are talking about capital bonds where the money is locked up for the term indicated. I think you should also consider regular monthly savings plans where the individual commits for 1, 2 or 3 years say. That's my basic thinking

John L Hales