Suncorp’s half-year results indicate positive progress of digital simplification program | ZDNet

Suncorp Group has reported that during the first half of the 2022 financial year it continued to simplify its digital assets across all three business divisions, namely insurance, banking and wealth, and New Zealand. 

Some of the key highlights was within its banking and wealth business, with the company pointing out that its “at-call” transaction portfolio grew to nearly 13% during the first half of the 2022 financial year, which was underpinned by digital offerings including the launch of its buy now pay later product, Suncorp Pay Later.

The bank also boasted it completed the migration of personal customers to the Suncorp app, where average monthly logins to the app per customer rose up 10% to just above 23 as a result.

During the half year, Suncorp experienced an update of over 20% for digital consumer at-call account openings, with digital now for over 70% of new deposit accounts, the company said.

“Updated monitoring for digital fraud saw a removal of significant inbound call drivers. Digital engagement and origination capabilities continued to strengthen, including joint account online origination, pre-filled income and expense data, and the launch of a refreshed broker portal,” the company added.

Off the back of these updates, Suncorp banking net profit after tax rose 5.3% to AU$200 million, which accounted for 55% of AU$361 million in group cash earnings for the half. Operating expenses were up 1.1% to AU$366 million, which the bank attributed was due to a temporary increase in spending on strategic initiatives.

Similarly, Suncorp New Zealand invested in digital and data capability of core systems during the half-year period, such as in developing a singles claims platform to standardise and automate manual work. As a result, operating expenses went up by nearly 9% to NZ$250 million, while after-tax profit for Suncorp New Zealand was down 35% to NZ$84 million for the six months.

From a total group perspective, the company ended the period to 31 December 2021 with net profit after tax slumping 21% to AU$388 million and operating expenses of AU$1.4 million.

The group took the opportunity to also provide an update on the progress of its three-year digital transformation plan, saying it remains on track.

“The group is on track to achieve this by investing in 12 strategic initiatives, with the benefits of this program being realised in the form of accelerating top-line growth momentum, reduced claim numbers, lower loss and expense ratios and improved productivity,” the company said.

Encompassed in those 12 strategic initiatives include improving digital sales and service capabilities and continuing simplifying its digital offerings.

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