Newcastle Building Society has today unveiled three newly designed savings passbooks, created in partnership with prominent North East artists, tapping into the growing trend for digital downtime in today’s fast-paced and increasingly online world. This comes as an increasing number of high street banks opt to phase their passbooks out, giving savers less choice about how they manage their money.
The Society’s decision to breathe new life into its passbook offering is part of its commitment to maintaining access and choice in financial services – whilst helping savers to slow down and find focus in a world full of distraction. The Society says it’s this focus on place and the people that make up its communities that drives its commitment to the high street and to providing access to face-to-face financial services.
Alongside customers who choose to transact via digital channels, the Society also listens to those who prefer to manage their money in-branch or wish to have a mix of both physical and digital to build healthy savings habits.
With more and more people embracing mindful activities such as journaling and meditation, and millions of Brits craving immersive hobbies like record collecting and gardening, Newcastle Building Society argues passbooks - physical notebooks provided to savings account holders to record transactions - provide an alternative choice for those who prefer to bank offline and connect with the real world.
The limited-edition passbooks feature the artwork of three local artists, Barrie Watson, Lisa Kirkbride and Joanne Wishart.
All three artists have created new pieces of artwork to feature on the covers, inspired by the North East and reflecting the blend of heritage and modern design at the heart of this campaign.
A limited number of these passbooks will be available to Newcastle Building Society members in each of their 32 branches across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Customers can share their views on the in-demand designs, including how the trend for unique and collectable passbooks could be extended. The Society says this could include extending the availability of the designs or commissioning new artworks.
These three original artworks will also be on display to the public at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead during its half-term ‘Big Days Out’ event from February 26th to March 2nd. Visitors will be able to meet artists Barrie Watson and Joanne Wishart who will be at the gallery on selected days during the event, to hear more about their work and the new passbooks.
The Society says that as well as being visually striking, the new passbooks also serve as tools for building better financial habits, encouraging customers to take an active role in managing their money. Customers praise their passbook for helping them resist impulse buying from their savings.
Michael Conville, Chief Customer Officer at Newcastle Building Society said: “Our members tell us time and again how much they value their passbooks because they provide a more tangible and personal connection to their savings and a physical record of their transactions. While other providers are moving away from passbooks, as a customer-owned organisation we’re more than happy to commit to offering them as long as our members want them in addition to our digital offering.
“Every passbook contains a unique story; whether it’s been used to save for a holiday, wedding, or simply set aside money for loved ones. We find people often keep their passbooks as mementoes long after they’ve closed their account, and hope this will be especially true of our reimagined versions. With the help of our talented local artists, we’ve given our members something new and special to treasure.”
Barrie Watson, passbook artist, said: "Contributing artwork for this passbooks project has been a deeply rewarding experience. Passbooks are more than just practical tools - they carry personal histories and memories unique to everyone. I have loved the process of creating art that pays homage to that sense of community and connection, as well as blending something traditional with my abstract and experimental style."