Examination of Witnesses (Questions 240-259)
MR ERIC
DANIELS, MR
JAMES CROSBY
AND MR
FERGUS BROWNLEE
19 OCTOBER 2004
Q240 Mr Cousins: The full population
of everywhere? Of everywhere? Do you select the areas for your
marketing?
Mr Brownlee: Areas being?
Q241 Mr Cousins: Areas.
Mr Brownlee: Areas of what? Location?
Geographies?
Q242 Mr Cousins: Areas, geography, yes.
Mr Brownlee: Geography, yes, we
use geography.
Q243 Mr Cousins: So you select certain
areas. I wonder if you could just explain to the Committee your
policy for the selection of areas.
Mr Brownlee: Yes, our policy is
one of looking at the over-18-year-olds—clearly that is
important to us, that is legal—
Q244 Mr Cousins: No, your geographical
policy.
Mr Brownlee: Geographically from
the Electoral Roll. With the paucity of information we have there,
we have postal coding. From postal coding we can judge the areas
in which people live and we have the number of members of a household
that are there. From that we can, from our various test databases,
judge the sort of individuals that we want to market to.
Q245 Mr Cousins: Do you have preferences
for the postal codes in your marketing?
Mr Brownlee: That is one of the
areas that we have, in terms of the data we have. Yes, we have
preferences.
Q246 Mr Cousins: You would not care to
set out for the Committee—either now verbally or in written
form later—how you identify the postcodes you select? On
what basis do you select them?
Mr Brownlee: We select them in
terms of the areas or cities in which they live; whether they
are city-dwellers or not, how many people are in the household,
the streets on which they live. That is information that is built
into our overall marketing.
Q247 Mr Cousins: I am just a bit concerned.
You have this mission statement to include everybody.
Mr Brownlee: No, not to include
everybody.
Q248 Mr Cousins: Well, across the full
credit spectrum and everyone is excluded from—
Mr Brownlee: Traditionally excluded.
Q249 Mr Cousins: Yes, I understand that.
It is a very good policy. However, I am just a bit concerned about
whether you target your marketing at particular kinds of areas
and leave other areas out. Do you leave some areas out?
Mr Brownlee: Yes, we leave some
areas out.
Q250 Mr Cousins: What areas do you leave
out?
Mr Brownlee: Under-18s.
Q251 Mr Cousins: No, no, areas. Postcodes.
Mr Brownlee: I do not know that.
Q252 Mr Cousins: I think the Committee
would want to know that and I think the Committee would want a
full analysis of what postcodes you prefer and what postcodes
you exclude, and on what basis you arrive at those postcodes.
I think that is very important information. Do you think you will
be able to give that? [4]
Mr Brownlee: In terms of the marketing
stage later, we may be able to give that data.
Q253 Mr Cousins: That would be very helpful.
What about Mr Daniels and Mr Crosby? Do you have a mission to
include everyone?
Mr Crosby: I think where it is
appropriate, yes. Whether we are talking about banking products
or credit cards, I think we can definitely lay claim to that fact.
Q254 Mr Cousins: Do you select certain
areas, as Capital One does?
Mr Daniels: No, we do not. As
you know, we are the bank that looks probably most like the general
population of Britain in terms of economic status and geography.
Q255 Mr Cousins: Mr Crosby?
Mr Crosby: With credit cards I
have to stress that very little of our sales are done through
direct mail; an awful lot are done in branch, as it is about the
national coverage, and that way you are assessing on the basis
of the general data and the credit assessment.
Q256 Mr Cousins: Do any of you have any
arrangements—because if you are marketing to people that
certainly Mr Brownlee regards as being potentially excluded—of
referral to some outside agency for people who you think might
be getting in difficulty or need advice? Who do you refer people
to?
Mr Daniels: We have a specialised
debt unit to which customers that we believe are having difficulties
or who tell us they are having difficulties are referred to the
unit. We then work with an outside agency that is a specialist
in helping people who have debt issues.
Q257 Mr Cousins: How many such referrals
do you make each year to your own internal specialist debt unit?
Mr Daniels: I do not know offhand.
Q258 Mr Cousins: You could tell the Committee
though?
Mr Daniels: I would be happy to
write to the Committee. [5]However,
I would remind the Committee that, again, 96% of our customers
have no trouble in managing their credit cards. So the number
that we are starting with is a relatively small number.
Q259 Mr Cousins: How do the other two
of you deal with this?
Mr Crosby: We would, on a local
basis, help customers as far as we could, but also refer them
to Citizens Advice Bureaux.
4 Ev 70 Back
5
Ev 84 Back
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