Customer focused banking technology that has transformed Nationwide’s banking services and enabled the launch of new FlexPlus current account

United Kingdom, London — 11 March 2013 — Nationwide Building Society today launches FlexPlus, its newest current account and the latest market leading product made possible by the Society’s new banking platform delivered by IBM (NYSE:IBM), SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Axxiome.

Nationwide has completely transformed its technology, enabling it to create innovative new products and services to meet the changing needs of customers. FlexPlus, which is the Society’s first packaged account offering a wide range of benefits including worldwide travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, UK and EU breakdown assistance and much more, joins a list of ground-breaking developments including:

• The launch of FlexDirect, self-service current account paying a market-leading credit interest rate of 5% p.a./AER
• Mobile banking app, which has proven to be a real customer favourite with over 400,000 downloads since its launch, allowing customers to do all their banking on the move
• Brand new online bank, having been first to launch internet banking in 1997
• ISA track and trace service, to give customers peace of mind
• Mortgage processing software, to speed up mortgage offers
• New data centre

In the development of the new banking platform Nationwide drew on the skills and expertise of IBM (as lead delivery partner); SAP (as software provider) and Axxiome (as banking solutions delivery specialist).

Tony Prestedge, Chief Operating Officer at Nationwide, explains: “Meeting the needs of our customers is at the heart of everything we do and our investment in technology gives us the tools we need to do that. Our focus has been on providing our customers with new and better ways to do business with us and a greater choice in transaction methods that meet their needs, as well as improving the choice of products and services.

“The mobile banking app is an excellent example of this with the feedback from customers showing this has been really well received. It’s easy to use functionality means customers can now check balances, and make payments on the go which is increasingly important to consumers as we now all expect a variety of ways to bank.”

Tony Prestedge, continued: “The new banking platform delivered with our technology partner IBM and technology providers SAP and Axxiome, went live last year and is at the heart of our new FlexDirect and FlexPlus current accounts. The platform enables Nationwide to create more flexible products, providing our members with more choice and helping ensure we bring competition to the current account market. This is just the start of a series of planned developments to make us a more agile, innovative and responsive financial services provider.”

IBM worked with Nationwide as the lead delivery partner to project manage and drive the transformation, implementing SAP Banking, the new Internet Bank and the new Mobile Bank. Alongside this delivery leadership, IBM worked with Nationwide on solution architecture, design and testing. Nationwide also worked with scientists at IBM Research (at Hursley in the UK, and La Gaude in France) on business and technical proofs of concept and on platform sizing and performance testing.

“The financial services sector is undergoing significant and rapid transformation and banks are realising the need to leverage technology to become increasingly agile and continue focusing on the customer in order to gain a competitive edge,” said John Granger, General Manager, IBM Global Business Services Europe. “The new milestones are key to Nationwide’s transformational journey and help meet rising customer demand for new products and easy access to services and innovative apps.”

Based on SAP’s core banking software, and Axxiome’s expertise in banking and delivery, Nationwide’s banking platform delivers the tools required to meet the needs of its customers by providing a greater choice in transaction methods as well as growing the choice of products and services. The banking platform supports all of the Society’s products as well as being fully integrated with its internet bank and mobile banking app.

“Customer service levels and real-time capability are crucial in today’s competitive market,” said Simon Paris, Global Head of Financial Services, SAP. “The successful deployment of the SAP banking platform means that Nationwide is now in the best possible position to drive the growth of its current account customers through the delivery of new and innovative products. By adopting SAP’s uniquely tailored market-leading banking platform which includes front office, core processing and back office functions, Nationwide can offer differentiated products and services that support its interaction points with customers across all channels.”

“As the banking solutions delivery specialist, Axxiome has helped to enable Nationwide to innovate its banking services and this has led to the launch of two market leading current account products since the platform went live,” said Mike Clark, managing director at Axxiome. “It has been an insightful journey for us all and one which Nationwide will continue to reap the rewards from as the new platform means Nationwide can realise its ambition to launch more flexible products, improve its banking capability and attract new customers, all of which will help to future-proof the Building Society for years to come.”