Ask The Directors 2016

Why did some Executive Directors receive an 8% rise in basic salary in 2015?
Ecology adheres to principles of fairness and transparency for remuneration. Our approach is to reward our staff in line with experience, expertise and overall contribution to the Society.

In 2015 all members of staff received the same ‘cost of living’ percentage increase in their salary in 2015. All staff also receive the same level of pension contribution and the same opportunity to participate in the Society’s profit related pay scheme.

In a small number of cases, where there are more demands placed on an individual’s role, some members of staff received an additional increase to reflect those increased responsibilities.

In the case of the Executive Directors we undertook a review at the end of 2014 which benchmarked Executive roles and pay against other similar sized building societies and other organisations. This confirmed that, in addition to Paul Ellis being the lowest paid CEO in the building society sector, the demands on some Executive roles had increased, partly as a result of the increasing regulatory environment, which resulted in Paul Ellis and Pam Waring receiving a greater level of increase.

Will members be given the opportunity to vote on any changes to the Society’s remuneration policy in 2017?

At the 2015 AGM we announced that we had started an exercise to seek members’ views about our remuneration policy. This work is continuing and we are taking professional advice on all our overall policy to ensure that we can both continue to deliver on our vision and recruit the most appropriate staff.

As part of this, in the coming months we will be consulting with members on the Society’s Ethics Panel on any potential changes of our overall policy ensuring its continued fairness, appropriateness and regulatory relevance.

At our next AGM in 2017, as in previous years, all eligible members will be given the opportunity to vote on the Society’s remuneration report which sets out our approach to remuneration.

If the Directors were to recommend moving away from the policy that no basic salary will exceed a maximum of five times the lowest full grade available will members have the opportunity to vote on this at the next AGM?

At the 2015 AGM we announced that we had started an exercise to seek members’ views about our remuneration policy. This work is continuing and we are taking professional advice on all our overall policy to ensure that we can both continue to deliver on our vision and recruit the most appropriate staff.

As part of this, in the coming months we will be consulting with members on the Society’s Ethics Panel on any potential changes of our overall policy ensuring its continued fairness, appropriateness and regulatory relevance.

At our next AGM in 2017, as in previous years, all eligible members will be given the opportunity to vote on the Society’s remuneration report which sets out our approach to remuneration.

Do you think that Ecology BS should be part of a trend of increasing pay for top people i.e. the rich get richer?

Ecology adheres to principles of fairness and transparency for remuneration. Our approach is to reward our staff in line with experience, expertise and overall contribution to the Society.

In 2015 all members of staff received the same ‘cost of living’ percentage increase in their salary in 2015. All staff also receive the same level of pension contribution and the same opportunity to participate in the Society’s profit related pay scheme.

In a small number of cases, where there are more demands placed on an individual’s role, some members of staff received an additional increase to reflect those increased responsibilities.

Reflecting our commitment to fair pay policies, the Society became an accredited Living Wage Employer in 2015

In view of the introduction of the Personal Savings Allowance is the Society looking at ways of the increased competition with ISAs can be improved for savers?

The introduction of the Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) is quite interesting and, in some respects, this potentially undermines the tax free benefits of ISAs.

At this early stage it’s not yet clear where the rate environment will settle down since the introduction of the PSA but we have seen reductions in ISA rates in the market. Our ISA rate is currently somewhat above most of the rates which is proving increasingly difficult to maintain so we may need to review this in the coming months

What is the Society doing to attract younger members to secure the success of its mission in the future?

We definitely want to keep on attracting people into the Ecology family.

We have made and continue to make a number of developments to attract younger members to Ecology. These include initiatives such as refreshing the website and enabling it for tablet and smartphones, allowing relatives to open some accounts for their children and grandchildren, promoting Ecology online and introducing products such as our Regular Savings Account which accept Direct Debit payments. We are also, increasingly, using social media to engage with our members and wider stakeholders.

In the future we will be looking at increasing our online functionality including, potentially, enabling online applications for savings accounts.

What measure did you use for the living wage?

We are an accredited Living Wage employer which means that we are committed to paying the Living Wage at a level agreed by the Living Wage Foundation. This Living Wage is higher than the National Living Wage which was recently introduced by the Government.

Can Ecology approach Bank of England for a 0.5% fixed discounted rate to support Ecology’s lending?

The Bank of England has not made money available to be accessed in this way.

There have been cheaper funds available through a scheme called Funding for Lending but this would then mean limiting facilities available for our savers and the scheme has been responsible for widespread reduction in rates to savers, so we have chosen not to take part.

As mortgage lending levels have risen a lot this year what is the security of mortgage lending by the Society?

Despite the increase in lending in 2015, we have maintained high standards of mortgage underwriting both in terms of financial assessment and also ensuring our lending is aligned to our purpose ‘to build a greener society’ by maintaining our environmental criteria for lending. Throughout we believe that our security remains strong.

Would it be possible to stream the AGM live online and archive a copy for those who are unable to view the AGM in real time?

We will review the feasibility of live streaming for future AGMs