Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has become the first major building society in the UK to introduce video conferencing with its customers within working hours outside of a branch
While heavyweight financial institutions such as Barclays have already implemented this type of service, and Nationwide is in the middle of rolling out HD video banking services to 400 branches across the UK, YBS, currently with 178 branches, are the first building society to complete implementation for home use.
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The video service also offers secure document sharing, meaning that banking arrangements and investment plans can be altered without having to enter a branch.
Speaking to EPI, Simon Broadley, head of investments at Yorkshire Building Society, said: "We believe that the best way of advising a customer on how to invest their money is through face-to-face contact with a fully-trained adviser, but we know that many people with busy modern lives simply do not have the time to get to a branch and use this service. Using video communication makes this form of advice accessible to more people, which is what we hope to achieve through this new service."
The service can be accessed through downloading an app onto your tablet, laptop or desktop computer and clicking a link during their appointment time. Calls work like a video conference and are completely secure.
Appointments are with fully trained financial advisers who can share documents on the screen. Customers can book appointments with the same adviser, such as they would with face-to-face appointments.
Broadley concluded: "We believe that financial advice should be accessible to all, not just the wealthy. This is reflected by our threshold for advice, which is relatively low at £10,000 of investible income. We would welcome more accessibility to advice and to investments across the market."
