CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: RETAIL BANKING
A moment that matters With a branch in most neighbourhoods, Nationwide has made a virtue of being the bank on the street where you live. So we asked Channel Service Director Carole Layzell how a massive swing to online channels during the current crisis is affecting it
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TheFintechMagazine | Issue 16
Nationwide, the world’s largest building society and one of the UK’s few remaining mutuals, prides itself on being there for the ‘moments that matter’.
And, right now, the 130-year-old institution, like most of us, is adapting to a pretty big moment in history. It’s become known as the ‘best bank on the high street’ – by being just that… on the streets that many of its rivals have already fled. While the big four – HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of
Scotland Group and Barclays – drove a wave of closures that saw a third of bank branches shuttered for good in less than five years, Nationwide has maintained 96 per cent of its estate and last year committed to keeping a branch in every town that has one until at least May 2021. But the lockdown and social distancing has triggered a massive change in customer behaviour. The bank saw an 89 per cent rise in people signing up for its digital banking service between mid-March and mid-April compared
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