Here at Newsflash Online, we know how technology can help transform businesses of any size, so we were interested to learn that Nationwide was planning to invest an extra £1.3bn in new technology over the next five years.
The announcement comes as the UK’s biggest building society has seen the way that people access its services change in a fundamental way. There were 200 million more mobile app logins in 2017 compared to the preceding year. The app now has 2 million registered users, which is more than the building society’s online banking numbers and double the user-base from two years ago.
Despite this, however, Nationwide’s Chief Executive Joe Garner said that the new investment in technology will not diminish the role of the branch network and human employees in serving customers.
He said: ‘At a time when customer expectations of service are rapidly changing in a digital world, we are investing to ensure that we continue to provide leading service.
‘We believe that our members want a combination of human service on the high street, as well as digital convenience. As a building society, we are able to deliver both – continuing to invest in our branches alongside this significant investment in our technology and operational capabilities.’
New technology hub could create a thousand jobs
Total employee levels were expected to fall, but part of the investment plans include the opening of a new ‘technology hub’ that will create between 750 and 1,000 new jobs.
Nationwide said that improvements to its IT systems would allow it to become more agile and efficient, however. The investments would allow it to save an additional £200m annual costs through increased efficiency by 2023, on top of a previously announced saving target of £300m.
The banking and finance sectors are being transformed by technology as changing customer habits and new fintech innovations disrupt long-established banking and financial practices. Challenger banks and new financial technology offerings are also springing up, and Nationwide isn’t the only big player investing heavily in tech.
Lloyds Banking Group announced its own £3bn tech-focused investment plan earlier in the year and the Royal Bank of Scotland announced £1.5bn in restructuring charges over the next two years, with a significant proportion of the spend being in technology.
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