Award Notice for Contract for a Credit Union to Underpin A Community Banking Offer

This is an Award Notice for the following published Contract Notice:

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham are seeking an innovative and forward-thinking Credit Union partner who is up for the challenge of developing a Community Banking offer with us. Our vision is that fair, affordable and appropriate financial products and services are available to everyone who lives or works in Barking and Dagenham. We are looking for a Credit Union partnership to drive this forward and help us achieve our goals. The Credit Union does not have to be London based, we welcome applications from any Credit Union with excellent digital delivery.

Full details can be found in the tender documents.

What we are looking for in a partnership:

• Organisational strength and ability to grow: a credit union that can demonstrate its financial health and ability to grow an innovative offer with us in Barking and Dagenham to meet local needs.
• Products and Services: a credit union with a well-established comprehensive range of products and services that can meet different customer needs, including savings accounts, instant loans and transactional banking facilities at minimum.
• Partnership working: a credit union that can demonstrate propensity and willingness to work innovatively with the council and borough partners over the course of the contract.
• Service delivery: a credit union with a strong digital offer and can provide full, remote access to products and services via the web and/or mobile app. Other forms of engagement for those who are digitally excluded should also be available i.e. telephone
• Impact and performance: a credit union with ambitious but realistic expectations of joint performance targets and a vision for the change we aim to see in Barking and Dagenham, as well as the ability to evidence the wider social, wellbeing and local economic impact of provision

The contract is for 3 years with the option to extend for up to a further period of 1+1 years. London Borough of Barking and Dagenham will provide a number of investments to ensure the productivity of the partnership.

The contract is advertised at £500,000 however, £250,000 is the budget envelope for the duration of the contract. Additional funds over the budget envelope to grow the offer may become available during the contract, including potential capital investment. There is no commitment to additional funds at this stage.

We invite Credit Unions who meet the specification to submit a response to the Tender.