For many years, competition in the savings market has largely centred around rates. While pricing remains important, it's no longer the only factor influencing where customers choose to save. Increasingly, the quality of the digital experience is becoming just as significant.
Today's customers expect simple, intuitive interactions at every stage of their journey. Whether they're opening an account during their commute or managing their savings from home, they expect fast, consistent service regardless of the device they're using. When those expectations aren't met, friction quickly becomes frustration.
Expectations continue to rise
Digital experiences in other sectors have fundamentally changed what consumers expect from financial services. Processes that once took days are now expected to take minutes, and customers have little patience for complicated onboarding journeys or inconsistent digital experiences.
For banks and building societies, this creates both an opportunity and a challenge. Institutions that can deliver seamless customer journeys are more likely to build trust, encourage deposits and retain customers over the long term.
The challenge, however, is that many organisations are trying to meet modern expectations using infrastructure that was never designed for today's digital landscape.
Moving beyond legacy technology
Across the industry, modernisation remains a strategic priority. Many firms recognise that legacy technology can make innovation slower, increase operational complexity and create inconsistent experiences across customer channels.
Over time, digital services have often evolved independently. Mobile apps, online banking platforms and legacy systems may all perform similar functions, but without a unified approach they can create unnecessary duplication and operational inefficiencies.
Modernisation isn't about replacing everything overnight. The most successful transformation programmes build on existing strengths while progressively introducing more flexible technology, improving integration and creating a more connected customer experience.
Creating a single, connected customer journey
Customers don't distinguish between internal systems, they simply expect everything to work together.
Providing a consistent experience across digital channels requires organisations to reduce fragmentation and create a joined-up view of the customer journey. Modern platforms, cloud technologies and intelligent automation all play an important role in achieving this.
By simplifying processes and improving connectivity, organisations can reduce operational overhead while delivering faster, more intuitive experiences for customers.
Resilience matters as much as innovation
Customer experience doesn't stop at usability. Reliability has become equally important.
Service interruptions, technology failures and inconsistent digital experiences can quickly damage trust. At the same time, regulators continue to place greater emphasis on operational resilience and firms' ability to respond to disruption.
Modern platforms help strengthen resilience by reducing technology complexity, improving visibility across services and providing greater control over critical infrastructure. The result is not only a better customer experience but also a more robust operating model.
Modernisation creates lasting value
Competitive savings rates will always attract attention, but they're rarely enough to create lasting differentiation.
The organisations that stand out will be those that combine competitive products with fast onboarding, intuitive digital journeys and dependable service across every customer touchpoint.
For banks and building societies, investing in modern savings technology is increasingly about more than improving systems. It's about building stronger customer relationships, increasing operational resilience and creating the agility needed to compete in a rapidly evolving market.
Discover more
Our latest whitepaper explores how banks and building societies are modernising savings platforms to improve customer experience, strengthen operational resilience and remain competitive in a changing market. Download the report
