Nationwide collaborates with OpenWrks to help members in financial difficulty

Building society Nationwide has partnered with UK-based OpenWrks to use Open Banking technology to help its members that are in financial difficulty.

Through the partnership, OpenWrks’ technology will pull together information from different accounts and sources to build a digital income and expenditure statement that gives a picture of the financial circumstances of those Nationwide members facing financial hardship.

Members will receive the online income and expenditure statements prior to speaking to Nationwide’s collections and recoveries team.

Nationwide said that the technology should lead to a reduction in the time it takes for a member to get to the right outcome and reduces any “potential worry and stress”.

Claire Tracey, chief strategy and sustainability officer at Nationwide, said: “As a mutual, we believe in the power of partnership and that we can achieve more together than we can alone. Going live is the culmination of nearly 18 months’ collaboration between Nationwide and OpenWrks.

“Our agile approach and innovative thinking have helped us make a complicated process simple for members in difficult circumstances, all while supporting our colleagues who help them.”

OpenWrks, a provider of Open Banking applications, is part of Nationwide’s ‘Open Banking for Good’ challenge, which is a £3 million fund that challenges fintechs and organisations to work together to help improve the lives of those in financial difficulty using Open Banking technology.

OpenWrks co-founder and chief commercial officer Steve Bradford added: “Our primary consideration has been to ensure that members’ interests come first, resulting in a digital customer experience that enables them to work out what they can afford before speaking to an advisor.

“The combined knowledge and experience of both teams has resulted in a journey that removes some of the stress from the situation and helps members feel more comfortable throughout the process.”