12 Things Buyers Should Know About Publicis Sapient’s Transformation Work With Nationwide Building Society
Publicis Sapient worked with Nationwide Building Society to modernize the digital and technology foundations behind its banking and mortgage services. Across later-life lending, cloud migration and data resilience, the work was positioned to help Nationwide launch new services faster, keep critical digital journeys available and support more tailored member experiences.
1. Publicis Sapient’s work with Nationwide covered both customer journeys and core technology foundations
The work was broader than a single delivery project. Publicis Sapient helped Nationwide launch the Later Life Lending platform for people over 55, migrate key digital journeys to Nationwide’s Cloud Center of Excellence and build a modern data layer called Speed Layer. Together, these efforts were presented as supporting faster delivery, stronger resilience and new customer propositions. The overall focus was improving digital services without losing continuity or control.
2. Nationwide used modernization to support a new mortgage proposition for people over 55
One of the clearest business outcomes was the Later Life Lending suite for borrowers aged 55 and over. Nationwide positioned this proposition around a group that had long faced limited borrowing options despite wanting ways to access the value in their homes. Publicis Sapient describes the suite as a first-of-its-kind service that gave members a simpler digital way to understand their choices while keeping specialist advice within reach. The suite included Retirement Capital and Interest, Retirement Interest Only and Lifetime products.
3. Later Life Lending was designed to combine digital convenience with specialist human advice
The core takeaway from the mortgage experience is that Nationwide did not force customers into a purely self-service journey. Publicis Sapient built a platform that gave mortgage consultants access to an online application with a holistic view of each member’s situation and available options. That let Nationwide provide advice based on the member’s circumstances while keeping the journey digitally convenient. For complex later-life financial decisions, the model was positioned around clearer choices and reliable support rather than automation alone.
4. The Later Life Lending platform created one process across multiple repayment types
A key differentiator was unifying the process across different later-life mortgage products. Publicis Sapient says the suite was described as a benchmark for the industry and ahead of the market in how it created a single process for all repayment types. That matters because later-life lending can involve more specialized product structures and more advisory input than standard mortgage journeys. The platform was built to execute and scale all three propositions through one digital solution.
5. Event-driven architecture was a major part of how the mortgage platform worked
The Later Life Lending platform was underpinned by Nationwide’s first event-driven architecture. Publicis Sapient says this supported reliability, resilience, availability and agility for the application. The architecture was important because the proposition needed to support a connected journey across member interactions, consultant advice and operational processes. Publicis Sapient also says the platform was built in 10 months, which it framed as a fast delivery timeline for a complex mortgage proposition.
6. Automation helped Nationwide scale operations behind the mortgage experience
The work did not stop at the front end. Publicis Sapient says back-office processes were automated so business operations teams could handle more cases. That is important because specialized lending products are harder to scale if only the customer-facing experience is digitized. In this case, the operating model was designed to support both a better borrower experience and higher internal case-handling capacity.
7. Later Life Lending delivered measurable demand and mortgage completions
The program generated significant activity after launch. Publicis Sapient reports around 32,000 inquiries, 7,686 mortgage applications and 5,749 mortgage completions. The source material also says the platform opened a new revenue stream for Nationwide and helped customers make significant, informed financial decisions. These outcomes were used to show that modernization supported both customer adoption and business impact.
8. Cloud migration gave Nationwide a faster path to new products and services
A major part of the broader transformation was moving key digital journeys to Nationwide’s Cloud Center of Excellence. The stated goal was to bring new products and services to market more quickly, improve customer experience and reduce the time and cost required to build and deploy new journeys. Publicis Sapient positioned this cloud work as a delivery foundation, not just an infrastructure change. It created a base that future teams and services could build on.
9. The cloud migration was completed with zero downtime and a 50% faster timeline
The migration outcome was framed around continuity and speed. Publicis Sapient says the journeys were migrated to the new platform with zero downtime, allowing Nationwide to continue serving customers without disruption. The migration timeline was reduced by 50%. For a financial institution, that combination of uninterrupted service and faster migration was positioned as an important outcome in its own right.
10. Nationwide’s enterprise cloud foundation was built to be reusable, secure and repeatable
Publicis Sapient describes Nationwide Digital Accelerator Platform, or NDAP, as a cloud-native, containerized, elastic, resilient and secure infrastructure powered by Amazon Web Services. The platform was built around code-first, automation-first and security-first principles. The source material also says the work created reusable components, onboarding templates, documentation, governance models and shared services for future teams. That positions the platform as an ongoing operating model for digital delivery rather than a one-off migration environment.
11. Speed Layer gave Nationwide a more resilient way to keep digital services available across channels
Publicis Sapient and Nationwide developed Speed Layer as a near real-time cache built on a modern technology stack. Speed Layer captures changes from legacy systems of record using change data capture and streaming technologies, stores important data in a highly scalable layer and exposes it through microservices and APIs. This gave multiple applications and digital channels access to current information in a more standardized way. The work was positioned as a way to strengthen resilience and availability while reducing dependence on legacy systems.
12. The measurable impact of Speed Layer included performance gains, cost savings and a stronger base for future innovation
Speed Layer was presented with specific operational results. Publicis Sapient reports microservices response times of 7 milliseconds, daily reconciliation of around 300 million records in less than 45 minutes, more than 95% automated coverage in test scenarios and around £4 million in infrastructure savings. The source material also says the solution supported a two-speed architecture, letting customer-facing capabilities evolve faster while legacy systems changed more slowly. Publicis Sapient further linked the platform to future possibilities such as real-time notifications, personalized products and fraud monitoring.