The FinTech Report Podcast: Episode 30; Simon Burt, Head of Digital Customer Experience and Innovation, Newcastle Permanent Building Society

Nov 28, 2022

Simon Burt, Head of Digital Customer Experience and Innovation at Newcastle Permanent Building Society, shares insights from his extensive banking experience. He discusses NPBS’s strategic partnership with fintechs to enhance customer service. Simon reveals how branches are evolving into digital classrooms, prioritizing a customer-first digital approach. He highlights the transformative potential of Open Banking for consolidating customer data and streamlining the home loan process. Finally, he emphasizes the benefits of NPBS's recent merger, enabling greater technology investment.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Partnerships Over Digital-Only

Newcastle Permanent views its future as partnership-driven rather than becoming a digital-only bank.
Simon Burt says technology must support their mutual, customer-owned model to stay competitive.

ADVICE

Turn Branches Into Digital Classrooms

Train branch staff to act as digital coaches and guide customers to self-serve tools during visits.
Use branches as places to teach customers digital skills rather than just processing transactions.

INSIGHT

Simplicity Enables Integration

Newcastle Permanent rebuilt a modern mobile app focused on simplicity and design to enable integrations.
High user ratings (4.7 iOS) validate prioritising ease-of-use before adding extra tools.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The FinTech Report Podcast: Episode 30; Simon Burt, Head of Digital Customer Experience and Innovation, Newcastle Permanent Building Society

Key Points:

NPBS future is about Partnerships

NPBS not trying to be a digital only bank, but wants to partner with fintechs to stay competitive and serve customers better

Bank branches are now ‘digital classrooms’ for customers

Open Banking will change the bank-customer relationship for the better

Data first approach for decision making

Merger provides scale, which allows bank to invest more in technology

Simon Burt is Head of Digital Customer Experience and Innovation at Newcastle Permanent Building Society, a role he’s had for over 5 years. Simon has been with NPBS for over 15 and has worked across both branch banking as well as home loans. Prior to his 15 years with NPBS, he spent 10 years with American Express on the FX part of the business.

NPBS provide financial services, including accounts, home and personal loans, debit and credit cards, and insurance, but are not a bank. They are a mutual building society; NPBS is owned by the customers, not by shareholders.

Newcastle Permanent was established in 1903. They are regulated by the Banking Act 1959 (Cth), and supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Their motto is: ‘Here for Good’.

In November 2022, Newcastle Permanent and Greater Bank agreed to a merger. The merged organisation will have more than $20 billion in total assets and 600,000 customers, and benefit from almost 200 years of combined operating history.

The new merged entity, will be called: Newcastle Greater Mutual Group Ltd

In this interview we cover:

Simon’s role at NGMG?

Why NGMG?

What is NGMG’s interest in fintech?

What pain point do you solve for fintechs?

Who are your potential customers? What is your ‘sweet spot’?

How do you asses risk when dealing with fintechs?

Expansion plans?

Open Banking – benefit to fintechs & banks?

Simon always keen to meet with fintechs looking to partner:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonburt2300/