As we say goodbye to January, it feels like only a few weeks ago we were organising our event for the Mutual Sector at Market Harborough Building Society’s new Head Office.

On 22^nd Jan 2025, 93 guests from across 29 Building Societies and 3 Credit Unions, including representatives from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and UK Finance, came together for a day focused on a theme of ‘tradition meets transformation’.

Attendee’s networked, collaborated, and discussed how they can harness innovation to increase financial inclusion, whilst positively moving forward.

Building Societies 250^th Year

The title of the event was ‘250 Years of Tradition Meets Transformation | Advancing Technology for Today’s Mutual Sector’ – bit of a mouthful! however, we wanted to acknowledge and celebrate the fact that 2025 is the 250^th year of the Building Society sector and how it can and is utilising innovations to enable a technologically advanced future.

We wanted the event to focus on the thriving Mutual Sector and how they are bringing innovation to the delivery of banking services, including on our High Streets, whilst maintaining its trusted face-to-face support of the communities they serve.

Key Themes & The Day Itself

As we were compiling the agenda, we felt it was important to have a combination of inspiring speaker presentations and discussions taking place throughout the day.

With an introduction from the Building Societies Association (BSA) CEO Robin Fieth, looking at the history of the Building Societies sector as inspiration for the future, and Iain Kirkpatrick, CEO of Market Harborough Building Society, discussing The Thrive Agenda and how it’s helping the Market Harborough community, there were also a number of sessions from other great speakers from the mutual and technology sectors, including an informative presentation on the humble building society passbook.

From topical discussions at our CEO Roundtable, to an excellent Q&A from our Discussion Panel focused on ‘How Technology is Driving Transformation in Building Societies, the Panel focused on how technology is making a significant difference in how the Mutual Sector supports the delivery of banking services, with technology enabling, but also differentiating, their proposition.

Esteemed Panel guests including Benedicte Frew - Chief of Staff, Skipton Building Society and Emma Franklin - Head of People and Compliance at Clockwise Credit Union, answered questions such as, ‘How are you managing to tread that line of innovating your services whilst also making sure to support all customers, and ‘How does technology play a part in your areas of responsibility / in driving your proposition’.

The day ended with a thought-provoking Fireside Chat addressing and discussing the theme, 'Innovation and Change is not a Choice', where guests discussed how the Mutual Sector is addressing this, and how prioritising the most important things is the challenge! At a time when the face of banking is ever changing, digital change is continuous, whether it’s banking, retail, in homes or in workplaces.

Guests included Simon Taylor, CEO of Melton Building Society and Javed Anjum, CEO of OneBanx, discussing how the Mutual Sector has to ensure decisions are made that will support/be driven by members needs now, and in the future, and how technology can and is driving transformation in Building Societies.

Overall, the day was informative, insightful, and engaging - this was one of our key success factors as we were planning the event.

Collaboration & Commitment

In the end, the importance of the Mutual Sector's shared commitment to community-driven impact was clear from the presentations and discussions on the day. Modern Mutuals play a key part in reinvigorating communities and High Streets through the provision of face to face banking services, both in terms of commerce, and the personal wellbeing of the inhabitants, whilst being progressive and innovative.

Balancing how to do that, in terms of the priorities demanded by physical and digital investments is not clear cut, but we hope the event gave attendees fresh insights and direction to consider the way ahead and how they can work together to achieve it.