Nationwide Building Society adds over a billion pounds to IT spend

Nationwide is continuing to invest heavily in the latest tech, with an additional £1.3bn being channeled into its already ambitions IT spend.

The total of £4.1bn to be spent over the next four years will see the creation of 1,000 jobs, a fintech fund, huge SAP core banking deployment and the opening of a new tech hub in the UK.

The mutual wants to improve digital services for its 15 million members and continue to add new customers with digital services as a driver, as fintech services become increasingly more attractive to consumers.

Tony Prestedge, deputy CEO at Nationwide Building Society, said the company’s mutual status means it can invest in the longer term rather than making quick gains like traditional large financial services firms.

“The pace of technological change means we need to reassess continually how we serve our members in order to remain relevant, valued and competitive. We are therefore seizing this moment with confidence as we set ourselves up to succeed long into the future,” he said.

In 2008, the company embarked on a £1bn project to transform its technology after years of underinvestment, which was typical of the financial services sector.

The project involved upgrading its datacentre, outsourcing IT for the first time and implementing Microsoft technology in the front office and SAP at the back.

This has enabled Nationwide to increase its adoption of digital technology, claiming to be the first high street finance firm to offer an Apple Watch app.

In September last year, Nationwide announced it was using artificial intelligence technology from Tata Consultancy Services to reduce the complexity of back-end systems as it introduced more digital products.

Mobile services are a core part of this, and the building society is focused on increasing service delivery through this channel. It has grown the number of active mobile banking members by 44%, with 200 million more logins.

The latest investment is seeking to simplify the IT applications and infrastructure of the bank, create a new digital platform, invest in branch technology, reduce the number of data stores at the bank, and open a digital transformation hub.