Welcome

Welcome – New Members Jackie Barker

Welcome - Guests Guests Gyftswap Bonago Eagle Eye GAP Global Hotel Card Havas People Nationale Entertainment Card Neenah Sustainable Cards

Welcome - New Exec IssuerService John BevanSpaFinderEoin WhyteSavvy Stephen AshdownDebenhamsAjay SethiePPS Stuart LawrenceMarks & SpencerSiobhan MooreLocke Lord Juliette SavageTK MaxxSteve BradberySVS Glenrose RoperSignet Joint Chairs: John Bevan, Stephen Ashdown & Eoin Whyte

Andrew Johnson Director General, UKGCVA UKGCVA Annual General Meeting

2013/14 End of Year Accounts ££ Sales Includes member fees & research fees Cost of Sales Includes subscriptions, web costs, events, data reports & research projects Gross Profit Administrative Expenses Net Profit

Current Membership 32 Issuer Members 38 Service Members 70 Total Members Please pay your membership subscription if you haven’t already!

New Exec IssuerService John BevanSpaFinderEoin WhyteSavvy Stephen AshdownDebenhamsAjay SethiePPS Stuart LawrenceMarks & SpencerSiobhan MooreLocke Lord Juliette SavageTK MaxxSteve BradberySVS Glenrose RoperSignet Joint Chairs: John Bevan, Stephen Ashdown & Eoin Whyte

Constitution Changes Executive Voting Exec suggest that the following be added to the UKGCVA Constitution: ‘A minimum turnout of 60% of the membership is required to validate an executive committee election. If less than 60% of the membership vote then a re-vote is required.’ Please give your response by completing the sheet given to you and return to Julie

Constitution Changes Fees 2014/15 no increase in fees, this is the 6 th consecutive year of fee increases. Exec suggest that the following be added to the UKGCVA Constitution: ‘From 2015 membership fees will increase year on year at least in line with inflation.’ Please give your response by completing the sheet given to you and return to Julie

Non-Constitutional Changes Members received invoice for fees in May. Members who have not paid by January will not be entitled to attend meetings and events At the last members meeting there was a proposal to link a research project to the membership fees, based on member feedback the Exec decided not to go ahead with this. Research will be included in the Strategy

Eoin Whyte & John Bevan Joint Chairs, UKGCVA Strategy 2015 and Beyond

Current strategy takes us to end of the year New strategy for 2015 to 2017 New strategy will determine the brief for the new Secretariat Strategy development is not exclusive to Exec – all members have opportunity to be involved

What Next? Today get feedback from members Between now and Christmas monthly meetings arranged which members may feed into Strategy presented to full membership February 2015

Today 1.The UKGCVA today – the value of membership – questionnaire 2.In 3 years what does success look like for the UKGCVA?

Today What real value does your company get from your membership today? Why do you stay as a member? Why should new members join? What benefits would you like to see that you currently don’t get? Is the policy of ‘no data, no membership’ an enable or inhibitor? Small Groups, fill in questionnaires

3 Year View If the Strategy has delivered, what does success look like for the Association in 3 years time? Consider: Has membership doubled? Is there a new SME category of membership? Are 75% of the top retailers members? Is data submission mandatory or optional? 4 groups, round flipchart

Insurances & Bonds. Update from Department for Business, Innovation & Skills Andrew Johnson Director General, UKGCVA

Insurance Further to discussions at previous meetings and workshops the UKGCVA Exec agreed to investigate the cost of various types of insurance policy Three separate companies are investigating a range of insurance based options Getting specific quotes is proving more difficult than expected; to date we have no definitive figures Various insurance options have been identified and the Exec aim to have more information within the next 4 to 6 weeks

Business, Innovation & Skills No word from BIS since the presentation at the conference in March by the Minister……… ……..until this week! Letter received

Good News! BIS have extended the scope of ‘the project’ to include pre-payments in the event of a company insolvency The Law Commission is to undertake research on the protection of repayments and the position of payments claims during insolvency ‘This goes much wider than the gift voucher industry..’ The Law Commission will be carrying out a consultation exercise next year – the UKGCVA and members have been asked to participate in this consultation

Not so Good News! Consumer Codes Approval Scheme operated by Trading Standards Institute ‘we are still interested in encouraging the gift card industry, amongst others, to consider setting up an approved Code’ ‘..work closely with your industry on particular aspects of the sectors offer to consumers, such as seeking to set up a common minimum expiry date and working with the Financial Conduct Authority on transparency of terms and conditions that would be understandable for consumers’ Next Steps: Two Chairs and DG will meet with BIS on 16 th October

Emoney, Payment Services Directive & AML Andrew Johnson Director General, UKGCVA on behalf of Siobhan Moore, Locke Lord

VAT Andrew Johnson Director General, UKGCVA

Harmonisation of VAT on Vouchers Across all Member States – EU meeting 18 th Sept VAT B2C place of supply rules come into force 1 st January 2015 Suggested that a change be made to VAT rules from 1 st January specific to Telecoms; this was rejected However, all Member States agreed that it was not possible to pass domestic legislation by 1 st January for wider industry ‘ The Presidency concluded that the majority of Member States would support further work aimed at business affected by the 2015 changes (ie not just telecoms business ) and it would consider making text revisions either targeted at those specific businesses or something that focusses on the characteristics of those businesses. The latter would also apply to businesses not in those sectors but with similar voucher operations. We wait to see what the Presidency puts forward for further discussion next month on a date as yet unconfirmed.’

from Treasury ‘The meeting also considered a paper put forward by the UK that suggested future discussions of the more complex MPV issues could be held around a basic rule for MPV vouchers. Where the issuer and redeemer are the same entity and the buyer paid the face value, the tax would be accounted on redemption. But where this basic rule could not apply, the UK suggested a possible solution would be to charge a blended rate through the distribution chain, based on the general VAT position of the redeemer - or alternatively, a standard rate subject to an adjustment. This received a mixed reception but we have been asked to explain the concepts further at a future date.’

from Treasury ‘The meeting also considered a paper put forward by the UK that suggested future discussions of the more complex MPV issues could be held around a basic rule for MPV vouchers. Where the issuer and redeemer are the same entity and the buyer paid the face value, the tax would be accounted on redemption. But where this basic rule could not apply, the UK suggested a possible solution would be to charge a blended rate through the distribution chain, based on the general VAT position of the redeemer - or alternatively, a standard rate subject to an adjustment. This received a mixed reception but we have been asked to explain the concepts further at a future date.’ UKGCVA has sought clarification on this, however ‘it would be easier for us to explain face to face’ and consequently we have been called to a meeting with Treasury on 15 th October. 15 th October, also a meeting with Treasury for any member who manages business affected by VAT rules in Germany – Treasury wants to know more about how Germany manages VAT on vouchers

1. What would Members like to see on the UKGCVA website? 2. How do members use the website? 3. How should the UKGCVA engage with social media; what advantages can social media bring to member communication? UKGCVA Website & Social Media Strategy

Andrew Johnson Director General, UKGCVA UKGCVA Conference 2015

Conference 2015 Wednesday 18 th March; Lancaster Hotel, London New website launched this week Interactive site with social media feeds Members encouraged to Tweet Brochure distributed to over 500 potential sponsors, exhibitors and delegates

Conference 2015 Wednesday 18 th March; Lancaster Hotel, London Opportunities for Sponsoring Opening sponsor Closing sponsor Other sponsorship packages Opportunities for Exhibiting Gold, Silver & Bronze packages Opportunities for Speaking See website, brochure or speak to Julie

UKGCVA Data Collection

VALUES UPDATE September 9th 2014 Waterside House UKGCVA - BDO Data October 2014

Objectives Review what we currently receive Understand how you use the data Review the BDO recommendations Understand what members want to receive

BDO Data Analysis Review Review the Top Level data In Retailers / Leisure Operators / Agent By % and by Value Paper / Plastic B2C (Store -.com – GCM) & B2B (Direct – Indirect) Industry Total Retail Total Leisure Agent Blind Ranking – once per year

Trends

Blind Ranking TOTAL MEMBERSHIP TOTAL B2C B2B Paper Voucher Gift Cards VolumeGrowthVolumeGrowthVolumeGrowthVolumeGrowthVolumeGrowth Ranking Contrib utors The results of two of the contributors have been estimated RETAIL SUB-GROUP TOTALB2CB2BPaper VoucherGift Cards VolumeGrowthVolumeGrowthVolumeGrowthVolumeGrowthVolumeGrowth Ranking Contrib utors

Recommendations for workshop discussions Data insights workshop sessions More definitions Blind Rankings – quarterly to see how this changes or half yearly for a larger insight? Explore what more can be reported Sub Group Level – Retail only? Grocery Fashion Department stores DIY / Homeware

Lunch and Networking Next Member Meeting Thursday 12 th February 2015 ICO