Nationwide freshens up online banking systems

External focus on usability masks complexity behind new system

The Nationwide Building Society has unveiled a major update of its internet banking service, designed to give customers greater control over their money.

The new system, based on feedback from around 1,400 customers, is intended to be easier to navigate and simpler to register for, while also giving the building society far greater capacity to scale.

New features include the ability to filter information more easily, using the type of approach that customers will be familiar with from using online flight booking systems, said Richard Searle, head of channel integration at Nationwide.

"This system will allow customers to see, for example, how much money is going out their account via direct debits," he said.

The ease of use disguises the back-office work necessary to deliver a modern internet banking system, however.

Behind the scenes, Nationwide had to be able to take data from 33 separate systems and present it safely and reliably in order to populate the online system with the information customers would want, said Searle.

"It also makes extensive use of a new content management system," said Searle. "When we built our original internet banking system 14 years ago, content management systems didn't really exist."

One of the features that hasn't changed is the sign-on process – the step most banking customers are nervous about, said Searle.

Nationwide customers have the choice of a username and password, or a remote card terminal to log in to its online bank service. According to Searle, since the card terminals were introduced eight months ago, around half its customers will use them when logging in to pay a bill, but far fewer do when just checking balances.

"It's a Marmite sort of technology," said Searle. "Some customers really love it, and others may never take to it. But it's important we continue to give our customers the choice."

Much of the back-office work has been done in conjunction with services giant IBM.