Nationwide, the world’s largest Building Society, has today announced plans to open a new site in London, having also recently unveiled its expansion plans in Swindon. This will help the Society attract the talent it needs for the future, whilst building on the existing skills of its workforce. The news follows Nationwide’s announcement in September 2018 that it would spend an additional £1.3bn in technology over the next five years - totalling £4.1bn over the period.
The new locations will be based at The Post Building in London and Ramsbury House in Swindon, which will support the Society’s ongoing service and technology transformation. The new London space will host around 1000 colleagues and house a Digital and Technology Innovation Centre for those working in Digital, Data, Engineering, Architecture, Development Operations and Design specialisms. It will also become home for the team developing Nationwide’s proposition in business banking, off the back of securing funding1 to enter the market earlier this year.
Working from The Post Building in Holborn, the teams will help the Society build upon its existing technology and create new platforms to meet the changing needs of Nationwide’s 15 million members. The Society is actively recruiting into London, with around 750 roles across digital and technology being created over the coming months.
In addition, the Society has also outlined its commitment to its home town of Swindon with the purchase of an additional site, Ramsbury House, to house around 700 people from the Society’s existing digital team.
Joe Garner, CEO of Nationwide Building Society, said: “The way our members are engaging with us is continually changing, and we recognise the importance of investing in the skills and capabilities needed to continue to meet our members’ needs today and in the future. We now have over four million digitally active members, and that number is growing all the time as each week and month passes.”
“The increase in technology investment we announced last September will enable us to continue to innovate and provide members with the best service, whether that be in branch or digitally, as evidenced by our recent Which? award for the best banking brand in the UK for the third year running and by our first place position for service amongst our peer group2."
“We are excited to be returning to our roots in Holborn, where we were once headquartered back in 1894. All of our market analysis demonstrated the new location is the best place to attract industry-leading talent within the FinTech capital of the world. Purchasing a new site in Swindon is also an important part of our future, as we continue to help the local community to grow. With growing demand for our services, this is about recruiting skills and experience into Nationwide, alongside developing talent from within our current workforce, so that we have the broad range of skills needed to deliver the Society’s digital and data transformation strategy.”
1 Nationwide was awarded a £50 million grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund, administered by Banking Competition Remedies Limited (BCR), earlier this year.
2 © Ipsos MORI 2019, Financial Research Survey (FRS), 12 months ending March 2019, c.60,000 adults surveyed per annum, proportion of extremely/very satisfied customers minus proportion of extremely/very/fairly dissatisfied customers summed across main current account, mortgage and savings. Peer group defined as providers with main current account market share >4% (Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, Santander and TSB).
About Nationwide
Nationwide is the world's largest building society as well as one of the largest savings providers and a top-three provider of mortgages in the UK. It is also a major provider of current accounts, credit cards, ISAs and personal loans. Nationwide has around 15 million customers.
Customers can manage their finances in a branch, via the mobile app, on the telephone, internet and post. The Society has around 18,000 employees. Nationwide's head office is in Swindon with administration centres based in Northampton, Bournemouth and Dunfermline. The Society also has a number of call centres across the UK.
