IT Investment shows signs of paying off at Nationwide

Many banks spend a lot of time talking about what they would like to be providing for their customers. Only a few banks are able to put those words into action and come out with something innovative and useful to customers. Nationwide has gone and done just that, writes Billy Bambrough

Nationwide’s voucher app, dubbed Simply Rewards and developed with Visa, launched on 13 October and according to head of retail at Nationwide Chris Rhodes, has already been downloaded over 5,000 times.

The app is one of the first instances in the UK of a bank effectively making use of the vast swathes of data it holds on customers, in this case to to provide customers with retail discounts based on their previous spending habits.

Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, upgraded its core banking system in September 2013 in order to be able to offer its customers a wider range of current account products that were impossible with its legacy system.

Though the bank has had a good year due to strong earnings and variety of launches, it is still far away from achieving its goal of 10% of the UK current account market, only increasing to 6.4% from 6.2% in 2013.

The bank has also used the opportunity to leapfrog many of the mobile and online banking channels on offer at other UK highstreet banks, many depending on creaking systems never designed to support the level of transactions now being thrown at them.

The app analyses past purchases to display tailored offers to individuals, as well as allowing customers to search for discounts from a range of high street brands based on location and category, such as food entertainment or travel.

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Rhodes told RBI: "Nationwide has seen the adoption of previous apps grow quickly, indeed since June when we introduced Impulse Saver and Quick Balance to our banking app – millions of pounds has been saved and Quick Balance has been used over 10m times."

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