LONDON–The Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul) has taken over the running of the PrizeSaver program, launched by the U.K. government in 2019 to encourage people to save at their credit union.
There are now 14 credit unions across Britain taking part in the scheme, which awards £5,000 awarded to a winning saver each month. Twenty smaller prizes of £20 will also be awarded, CO-OP News reported.
The program has already seen £120,000 distributed to winners among the 14 credit unions. Currently, there are 14,153 Prize Saver accounts with over £1m saved across the 14 credit unions, CO-OP News added.
The pilot phase of the scheme was run by the Treasury department; it was administered by fintech company incuto, which will continue to provide its platform to run the monthly draws.
CO-OP News reported that in addition to taking over the project from the Treasury, Abcul is now the owner of the intellectual property rights for Prizesaver on behalf of the 14 participating credit unions.
“It gives account holders the chance to win prizes every month in order to incentivize them getting into a savings habit,” said Abcul CEO Robert Kelly.
‘Positive Engagement’
Added Incuto CEO Andrew Rabbitt, “Following the success of the initial pilot, commissioned by HM Treasury, which saw positive engagement, a boost in awareness of credit unions and over £120,000 of prizes paid out, we see this as a key product in our aim to deliver additional channels for credit unions to grow membership and reach a wider audience.”
Kelly said credit unions have a proven track record of helping people to save and to improve their financial resilience, and that credit unions in the country have helped members to build up savings of more than £1.7 billion.
The Prize Saver Credit Union project will run until September 2021, with a view to continue the scheme thereafter.