Special Feature
34 CORPORATE GOOD HEALTH
Special Feature
Nayna Dabhi with
Edwina Mather – the India Banking Service has successfully used events to generate word of mouth referrals within local Indian communities.
We want to make your financial life as straightforward as possible. So if you live in the UK and have family links with India, please get in touch. You can get more information at www. lloydstsb. com / indiabankingservice or call 0845 300 0000
Dr Muhammed Usmani and Mufti Abdul Barkatullah discuss Lloyds TSB Islamic finance developments with Mohammed Paracha at the first annual Lloyds TSB Shariah committee meeting
Ask us for more details. We’ re happy to talk to you.
0845 6007 786. Or you can get more information at www. lloydstsb. com / islamicfinancialservices of other initiatives to ensure that we can respond effectively to all of our customers’ diverse cultural needs, including literature in other languages where appropriate and advertising in ethnic minority media channels.
We have also introduced completely new products and services for some of our ethnic minority customers. We’ ve worked with renowned Islamic scholars to launch an Islamic current account and home finance product. The Muslim community is one of the fastest growing in the UK and is very much part of the fabric of British life. We want to give Muslim customers banking services that fit their faith, with all the benefits that they come to expect from a high street bank.
We have also launched an India Banking Service in partnership with ICICI Bank of India, for customers who have financial interests in both the UK and India. The India Banking Service is unique and through Lloyds TSB branches customers can open a bank account with Lloyds TSB and an account in India with ICICI Bank. They can then send money to India free of charge and even use the accounts to finance an Indian property for family or investment through an ICICI Bank rupee mortgage. The India Banking Service helps our customers manage their financial links with India.
Lloyds TSB is a big organisation and we place great importance on playing a positive role in the communities that we serve. To support our race strategy, Lloyds TSB has one of the largest community
“ The India Banking Service is unique and through Lloyds TSB branches customers can open a bank account with Lloyds TSB and an account in India with ICICI Bank.”
involvement programmes in the UK, through the work of our four Lloyds TSB Foundations for Scotland, England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, which between them receive 1 % of our pretax profits annually. The mission of the Foundation is to give grants to charities that help people, especially those who are disadvantaged or disabled to play a fuller role in their communities. Significantly, 25 per cent( over £ 4.5 million) of the total grants given by the Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales in 2005 went to ethnic minority charities.
The Foundation for England and Wales employs 11 grants managers who regularly attend many conferences and events held by ethnic minority charities and groups to identify work that will make the most impact. For instance in 2005 the Foundation provided a grant of £ 12,500 to Afiya, a charitable organisation based in the East Midlands, which aims to achieve health and social care provision for BME groups. The grant was used to stage a major conference to raise awareness of the BME network and Black Carers issues.
As well as supporting ethnic minority communities through our Lloyds TSB Foundations, Lloyds TSB also supports the Asian Women of Achievement Awards and the Asian Jewel Awards, for which we’ ve been the sole sponsor for the last three years. The Asian Jewel Awards recognise individuals who are exceptional in contributing to enrich the communities they live in.
We’ re particularly proud of our work with ethnic minority small businesses where we have been proactive in meeting the communities. One of our senior managers in Business Banking, Andy Parker, who works in Derby and Loughborough rightly points out:“ Asian people are terrific entrepreneurs and work hard to achieve success and really understand their customers. We should be doing the same.”
And judging from feedback from customers like 27-year-old Sofia Ali, a jewellery retailer in Birmingham, we are getting it right. She tells us:“ You really understand my business and my strategy.” engage SPRING ISSUE 2006