DXC helps create Leeds Building Society’s digital future

In this Q&A, Rob Howse, chief operating officer and executive director at Leeds Building Society, and Andrew Haigh, head of Banking and Capital Markets (EMEA) at DXC Technology, discuss evolving the financial institution’s customer journey. Leeds Building Society, a UK mortgage and savings business,  and DXC have built a compelling case of how digital transformation can create an optimal platform for growth in the face of challenges such as a disruptive landscape of new competitors and changing regulations.

What are the key objectives of Leeds Building Society’s transformation journey?

RH: If we are to put home ownership within reach of more people, then it is important that those people find it easy to take out a mortgage with us and easy to save with us. So, we have been investing heavily in platforms to improve our customers’ mortgage and savings journeys. On the mortgage side we have put in new origination platforms that make us the best in the industry in terms of the time it takes from mortgage application to mortgage offer. We’ve introduced the era of the sub-minute mortgage – for an increasing proportion of our customers the process takes only 29 seconds. On the savings side, we are about halfway through building out digital savings journeys for our customers. 

Those new journeys are much slicker, and provide a much more beautiful experience for people. You can do all you like with the front end, but at some point, you must face into the reality of the core banking system. Ours is old, all the technology that sits on top of it is old. It’s increasingly hard to change and not as flexible as we need. In the long term it is not going to give us the resilience that we need to support this business. So, we are now at this stage of facing that very difficult challenge of starting to replace it.

What has been DXC’s role in helping Leeds Building Society on this journey?

AH: DXC has been helping Leeds Building Society in several ways. We’ve been working with Leeds Building Society on the roadmap of how to safely transform around the core and move the business on its digital journey, with attention to ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements. We also have been maintaining the core banking system and elongating its life, giving Leeds Building Society the runway it needs for the next part of its transformation journey. 

What challenges has Leeds Building Society faced?

RH: As you can imagine there were a few challenges in getting ready for that journey, and obviously we have had a partner in DXC helping us. The first challenge is technical. We have a big set of monolithic systems, where we’ve had to work hard to unpick parts of that to modernize those mortgage journeys and modernize those savings journeys, and really shrink core banking back to something that was more manageable. It’s still going to be big and challenging, but it’s a lot smaller and a more tractable problem now than it was when we started the journey.

The second challenge is really around the capability, capacity and maturity of our organization, and the way we work with our suppliers to gear up the organization to make change. We have now internally moved from 200 colleagues invested in technology to over 300 over the last two years. We’ve had to work hard with DXC Technology to get us both to come together as one team and really focused on the one goal, and we’re in a good place for that now.

Finally, while all this change has been happening, we can’t ignore live production service. If we don’t keep our systems running, people don’t take out a mortgage and can’t save with us — so that is paramount. It’s there that DXC has been at the heart of keeping this business running and keeping those services stable.  

How will DXC continue to assist in Leeds Building Society’s journey?

AH: DXC’s role is in three core areas: production, production and production! You must continue to service the business today as it continues to transform itself, and our role is to keep that ship steady, and to maintain service levels to Leeds Building Society’s customers and partners. The second part is to help with the transformation journey around the core platform, certainly around migration activities, and lastly — which links to all the points — is to act as one team, to be very tight to Leeds Building Society’s IT department. We have one goal, one focus – to work together to help Leeds Building Society achieve the next chapter of its transformation journey.

RH: That hard work is what goes into providing the technology that really supports our business. The reason why that technology is there is to create a life-changing experience for that first-time buyer who is probably struggling to get a mortgage to buy a home. We are very proud of the difference that we make and all the hard work that DXC and Leeds Building Society have put into making that technology really support those first-time buyers.