Nationwide Building Society streamlines payment dispute process through software

Nationwide Building Society has rolled out software from Pegasystems to streamline the process of resolving Visa payments disputes from customers.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, said Nationwide, a 251% increase in disputes related to Visa payments put pressure on staff attempting to resolve them.

The mutual society decided to automate its processes by using Pega Smart Dispute for Issuers software from Pegasystems. This reduced the number of systems used by staff handling disputes from 15 to two and has cut processing time by about 15%, as well as operational costs.

Other improvements include the fact that because of the huge reduction in systems used, a single member of staff can resolve a dispute without having to pass the case on.

Martin Watkin, product owner, payment CIO at Nationwide Building Society, said the Pegasystems software has now replaced its legacy system to resolve Visa disputes. “We have now successfully completed thousands of consumer Visa dispute claims and have finally been able to retire our legacy forms system,” he said.

Watkin added that the new system streamlines processes in the front and back office. “With this digital transformation, our member-facing colleagues are able to consistently deliver an excellent experience in a simple and straightforward manner that is also hassle-free for colleagues in operational areas,” he said.

Nationwide used Tata Consultancy Services, a Pegasystems partner, to roll out the software and the building society plans to work with both suppliers to improve the experience of members and smooth dispute resolution in other departments.

Steve Morgan, banking industry market lead at Pegasystems, said: “In today’s environment, it is crucial to streamline resolution of critical customer issues such as payment disputes and reduce the effort of servicing and operations staff. Nationwide Building Society has demonstrated success with Pega by intelligently automating processes, retiring legacy systems, and saving both members and staff time. Nationwide will reap the rewards of their technology modernisation efforts, with the ability to more rapidly respond to future regulatory changes and evolving payment trends.”

Nationwide is an example of a financial services business that has transformed through tech.

It has been on a long tech investment journey for over a decade. When most financial services firms were slashing spending due to the global financial crash of 2008, Nationwide was investing heavily in IT.

At that time, it embarked on a £1bn project to transform its technology, which followed years of under-investment. This created the foundations for the company to adopt the latest technology when it emerges. Today, it is using fintech to transform the business.