Nationwide CIO Retail Products Kiran Mahil explains how digitisation and automation are transforming retail banking while preserving trust, widening access and building a future-ready, technology workforce.
Penny Horwood is joined by Kiran Mahil, CIO of Retail Products at Nationwide Building Society, to explore how digitisation and automation are reshaping retail banking while preserving trust, fairness and accessibility.
Kiran explains her role overseeing Nationwide’s core banking platforms, retail products and technology strategy, and outlines how the mutual’s values influence its approach to digital transformation. Rather than focusing solely on online channels, Nationwide is pursuing a multi-channel strategy that combines modern cloud-based platforms with continued investment in branches, ensuring no customers are left behind as services evolve.
Automation is being used to reduce costs, streamline routine tasks and improve resilience, enabling frontline staff to focus on complex customer needs. Kiran also discusses what “good digitisation” looks like in financial services, emphasising seamless customer journeys, strong security, effective use of data and AI, and technology ecosystems that are easier and more efficient to run.
Kiran shares insights into the scale and complexity of integrating Virgin Money into the Nationwide brand and platforms, from aligning technology and partners to maintaining resilience, momentum and staff engagement.
The episode closes with a discussion on widening digital access and preparing the future workforce.