Scottish Friendly: Best Mutual Insurer UK 2021

As a mutual, Scottish Friendly is a mission-driven company, never complacent. The Glasgow-based business has almost 160 years of experience and over 200 employees. Scottish Friendly consists of three main subsidiaries — assurance, asset management and insurance — and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It has some 700,000 members and manages assets of over £5bn. It recorded its second-highest sales figures during the pandemic, thanks to business continuity plans and rehearsed disaster-prep exercises. The company focused on survival tactics and reacted swiftly to protect the wellbeing of its colleagues and existing customers over driving sales performance.. Remote working was enabled within days of lockdown, setting everyone up on the cloud and ensuring that home offices provided ergonomic working conditions. It launched new products with some partners and restructured relationships with others. It introduced a new ethical investment fund and introduced new functionality to further enhance its mobile app. Over the past year, it has made a conscious choice to support strategies rather than sales figures — for the good of the company, its team and its members. It increased the budget for charity donations whist others detracted and led campaigns that resulted in support for the Trussell Trust Glasgow Foodbank and the Mental Health Foundation. The CFI.co judging panel is impressed to see a company come out the pandemic stronger than it entered. The judges present Scottish Friendly, a repeat programme winner, with the 2021 Best Mutual Insurer (UK) award.