Santander - January 2024

This is the headline of the feature How Santander International xxxxxxxxxx maintains in-person services DIGITAL REPORT 2024

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:

HOW SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL MAINTAINS IN-PERSON SERVICES

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SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

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SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

Will Wright, COO at Santander International, outlines how the business is supporting the communities it serves through innovation and transformation

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ike the Santander Group as a whole, Santander International is dedicated to driving a better outcome for its customers.

The business, which offers banking to the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, as well as some UK residents and expats, has a tough task on its hands given the geographical spread of its customer base, but is working hard to maintain face-toface services in this increasingly digital age.

Significant investment has gone into provisions like the Santander Work Café, where customers and non-customers alike can meet with employees in a relaxed environment to discuss banking, savings, mortgages or any other queries they may have.

“Prior to the Work Cafés, we always felt like we didn’t understand our customers well enough,” explains Will Wright, COO at Santander International.

“Certainly, in terms of our local customers, it’s really helping us to get more and more feedback and develop our offering.”

Whatever the project being delivered, there can be little doubt that Santander International’s number-one strategic priority is to grow customer loyalty. This, from Wright’s perspective, can only be achieved by guaranteeing an outstanding customer experience.

“It sounds really obvious but, in the end, we don’t think there’s any other way to grow

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Will Wright, COO at Santander International

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our market share, which is obviously our aim,” adds Wright.

“Personally, I find it a highly motivating goal, and one that’s easy to centre my team’s individual objectives around.”

The changing face of banking Clearly, the major talking point from a consumer’s perspective these days when it comes to banking is the disappearance of branches from town and city centres across the world.

The big question for organisations like Santander International is how to get that 6

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balance right between online and in-person provision, taking into account financial viability and the needs of customers.

Wright casts his mind back to an industry event he attended not long after joining Santander International, where small and medium-sized (SME) corporate customers were invited to give banks feedback on the quality of service provision they were receiving.

Plenty of feedback was offered, but central to it all was the withdrawal of faceto-face services – and it wasn’t popular.

WILL WRIGHT TITLE: CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER COMPANY: SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

“That’s when it really struck home for me, the importance of finding that balance,” Wright continues. “It’s different depending on the customer segment, but it’s also crucial to realise it’s different within customer segments as well.

“At a bank level, we use phrases like ‘digital first with a human touch’. It’s really important to look for those opportunities to use digital to make a customer’s life easier, but we can’t afford to lose that human touch.

“I think digital is where we probably have more work to do at Santander International.”

Will Wright assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer – joining the Executive at Santander International – in 2019. With a strong commitment to excellence, Will is instrumental in steering the bank towards a transformative journey.

His overarching goal is to position Santander International as a key competitor in the offshore banking sector. He achieves this by harnessing the extensive capabilities of the Santander Group and collaborating with strategic partners to deliver a customer-centric experience, focusing on digital while retaining the human touch.

With an extensive background across the financial services sector, his career spans across the investment management, investment banking and pensions industries, encompassing a diverse range of operational, risk and technology-focused roles. Will’s wealth of experience and expertise makes him a driving force behind Santander International’s continued success.

Technology-led bank card solutions for Santander International clients Accomplish offers cards-as-a-service designed for Private Banks, Wealth Managers and Financial Institutions.

As a key partner of Santander International, we are proud to work with Will Wright and his forward-thinking team to offer card solutions that meet Santander International’s needs.

Learn more about our card solutions for Private Banks and Wealth Managers

Launching a new card programme starts with building a deep understanding of the requirements of our partner and their customers, their experiences in the ever-changing world of cards and payments and, most importantly, their aspirations for the future.

Accomplish is a complete issuing solution provider. We understand that every partner we work with is unique and that flexibility, service excellence and speed-to-market are key.

“Our discovery phase with Santander International allowed us to explore options for their Private Banking segment by working closely to understand their requirements and those of their U/HNW customers. This is always a valuable exercise; during these sessions other needs came to light and together we devised solutions that would work for their local retail customers too. We considered Santander International’s core banking platform and systems, resource availability and their plans for the future, before agreeing an implementation plan and building their bespoke charge card programmes. Our flexible issuing platform enabled us to implement a two-phased approach supporting plans for Santander International to quickly launch an exceptional suite of branded cards while working on a fully integrated second phase using our comprehensive API.”, Sandra Meyer-Streicher, Head of Business Development at Accomplish.

Card issuing is complex and not usually a core activity for Private Banks, however, being able to make purchases anywhere in the world is vital to a customer’s overall banking experience.

Our solutions are designed to maximize choice and flexibility and provide cards that enhance the customer experience. Depending on their requirements, our partners can choose to integrate full card functionality into an existing banking app and internal systems via our API, or manage their card portfolio using our secure online portal. We offer the choice between a sophisticated range of stock cards that can be ready to go to market in just a few weeks or consultation to design bespoke materials including fully branded cards, collateral, customer service and cardholder apps.

Accomplish operates a regulated financial institution, is a principal member of MastercardTM and deploys all programmes on its proprietary PCI DSS Level 1 issuing and processing platform. For more information about our solutions please get in touch.

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SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

Supporting communities The aforementioned Santander Work Café initiative forms a major part of company-wide efforts to maintain that person-to-person interaction.

From a Santander International point of view, Work Cafés have been established in both Jersey and the Isle of Man, joining several other locations in the UK, Europe, North America and South America.

Ultimately, the island sites have proved hugely popular, becoming community hubs where all are welcome to make use of the bank, café and co-working space.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into maintaining that human touch with the Work Café concept,” Wright goes on.

“It’s important to use digital to make a customer’s life easier, but we can’t afford to lose that human touch” WILL WRIGHT

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

“When we started it, I don’t think we realised how successful it would be on the islands. The first was in Jersey and, at the time, we hadn’t made a decision on a second, but the success drove us to open one on the Isle of Man as quickly as possible.

“The most important thing is that this is for non-customers as well. It’s something I have to repeat a lot because it surprises people, but we really want Work Cafés to reflect our commitment to investing in local businesses and entrepreneurs.” santanderinternational.co.uk

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HID Shapes the Future of Santander International’s Mobile Banking Experience Next-level banking security and seamless consumer authentication – at the swipe of a finger.

As a world leader in identity technology, HID poises banks around the globe for success with integrated, frictionless and customisable digital banking solutions.

Learn more

HID powers secure mobile banking for Santander International HID is recognised by Santander International as an experienced provider of strong customer authentication, and is proud to be a trusted security partner.

HID’s collaboration with Santander International was borne out of its own long-standing partnership with Temenos.

When Santander International selected Temenos for its digital banking platform, HID was brought on board as a provider of strong customer authentication.

“Many of our authentication features are seamlessly integrated with the Temenos banking platform, and this was a great fit for Santander International,” explains Caleb Wattles, Senior Product Manager at HID. “In the case of Santander International, they implemented HID solutions to protect their web banking and mobile banking channels. We’re proud to be a trusted Santander International security partner.”

HID: A trusted security partner HID has helped Santander International transform its banking experience from web to mobile using its mobile client SDK, which is fully integrated into Santander International’s banking application.

Called HID Approve, the mobile

SDK supports login and transaction signing for a smooth, secure authentication experience.

“Santander International actually transformed from using our off-the-shelf mobile authenticator client to embedding the technology stack directly into their mobile application,” adds Wattles.

“This highlights how each customer has their unique requirements, and how HID can meet the customer wherever they are in their digital transformation journey.”

Continued collaboration Banks are navigating a testing cybersecurity landscape, often having to adhere to regulations and work within their own IT infrastructure.

What’s more, they face the pressure of having to deliver products and services with exceptional user experience, while trying to stay one step ahead of a faceless cohort of cyber criminals.

Wattles concludes: “This highlights that HID understands banks have a wide range of needs, and our goal is to provide the tools to empower banks to protect their customers and their reputation.

“As Santander International continues its digital transformation, we look forward to supporting them along the way.”

SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

Will Wright, Santander International COO, on Supporting Communities Through Innovation WATCH NOW

What’s more, the other big benefit for Santander International is the ability to gain a deeper understanding than ever before of its customers and potential customers.

Wright adds: “The Work Café team is there to get that feedback and listen to people who are interested in Santander International as a brand.”

Building operational models around technology While deploying industry-leading tech platforms at a firm like Santander International is key, in some ways it is the easy decision, says Wright.

The bigger challenge is ensuring the business is ready for adoption and can engage in configuring and building

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operational models around technology.

Wright thinks about operational models in two ways, firstly considering the model under which customers are served and encouraging staff to keep the customer in mind.

He explains: “I’ve had a relatively long career and I’ve seen many, many times a tech project start with the assumption that you just lift an existing operational model into a digitised model. That normally leads to poor customer outcomes.

“I definitely encourage project teams to start by considering the customer and thinking about the operational model that would work best in terms of what we’re delivering.”

Wright’s second angle is to ensure teams supporting tech platforms on a day-to-day

“ To me, a healthy workplace culture is everyone having that strong motivation and feeling of purpose in what they’re doing” WILL WRIGHT

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

basis are involved in their build-out and continuous improvement.

“It’s not a new concept but, if you build it, you run it,” he says. “The important thing for me is it brings those technical teams much closer to the customer.”

A healthy workplace culture The importance of instilling a healthy workplace culture has come to the fore in recent years, but one must ask exactly what this looks like.

“To me, it’s everyone having that strong motivation and feeling of purpose in what they’re doing – and generally feeling happy to be part of the team,” asserts Wright.

This is a core strategic objective across Santander’s various divisions and is supported using tools that can measure and monitor culture, as well as quick and santanderinternational.co.uk

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Pure Storage: Delivering data storage solutions reliably We speak to Patrick Smith of Pure Storage, about how the firm has pioneered reliable data storage solutions and its alliance with Santander International Field CTO for EMEA at Pure

team at Santander International

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simplicity which meant the IT

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frequent feedback surveys covering a range of topics.

“Regularly listening to colleagues gives us that opportunity to act quickly if something is raised or we can see a trend,” says the COO. “Our smaller scale at Santander International is a big benefit as I can get to know a lot of colleagues across our business.”

The size of Santander International also means management figures can instigate tailored induction programmes, allowing new starters to get to know the company more quickly and meet wider teams across customer segments.

Moreover, the location of the Santander International business, compared to the UK arm, resulted in a swifter return to the office post-COVID. In both Jersey and the Isle of Man, employees are also benefitting from newly-refurbished surroundings following significant investment in their offices.

Wright adds: “Feedback has been really positive around that, and it means we haven’t lost – to use a cliché – those water cooler moments, which is fantastic.”

Focusing on key partners Santander International has evolved to the point where it now has a clear strategy around partnerships. One of the most important aspects of this is to keep things relatively limited and focus on a select pool of key partners.

Typically, the business harnesses the capabilities of a combination of large, market-leading technical partners and platforms, particularly where strong relationships already exist across the group, to provide a backbone for the architecture.

These are blended with more niche, sometimes local solutions and consulting, 18

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“ Regularly listening to colleagues gives us that opportunity to act quickly if something is raised” WILL WRIGHT

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

which might be more unique to the islands.

An ongoing focus has been simplifying architecture to remove legacy bespoke solutions, typically involving numerous partners or third parties, resulting in a single strategy to solve business requirements.

This, in turn, reduces integration points and subsequent risk.

“Ultimately,” says Wright, “we’re striving towards that technical goal of achieving a single pane of glass for a customer, or even for colleagues to provide efficient customer service.”

He continues: “Forming strong partnerships is absolutely vital. At our scale, I think it’s even more important to be plugged into all the continuous innovations we’re striving for. We need to be working with people outside the banking arena and understanding the wider tech development that’s going on.

“There is a wider context to some of the relationships we have locally. Even though

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Driving Efficiency and Faster Processing Across Santander International’s Mortgage Journeys nCino’s scalable, cloud-based solution spans the entire

mortgage origination lifecycle, from decision-in-principle

through application, underwriting, offer, and booking, uniting customers and third parties on a single platform.

Automate manual processes for faster response times and a superior customer and colleague experience.

Discover nCino Mortgage

How Santander International Captured over 25% Regional Market Share of New Business Through Their Work Café Initiative, Backed by Cloud-Based Digital Transformation Santander International’s digital innovation journey with nCino started in 2021, with a goal to reinvent how they onboard and interact with new customers, originate, and approve mortgage products.

This ensures Santander International employees can achieve faster processing, reducing offline tasks and re-keying, whilst generating documents at the click of a button.

With the nCino Cloud Banking Platform, a SaaS solution focused exclusively for financial services that provides a unique combination of scalability and adaptability, Santander International was able to replace manual processes and disconnected journeys across the lending lifecycle.

As a direct result of this transformation, Santander International found that use of nCino’s platform reduced time to offer on average by more than 50% and the speed of offer letter creation accelerated from an estimated 3 hours to 30 minutes per case.

“Through this strong partnership, we were able to bring residential purchase and re-mortgage journeys live in six months, with buy-to-let following just three months later,” says Wil D’Costa, Mortgage Delivery Lead at nCino. “It’s really a testament to the collaboration between the two teams that helped ensure a successful delivery through a pragmatic and phased approach.” nCino’s single platform provides a 360-degree picture of customer data and quickly surfaces all relevant information for a mortgage application in one place.

Now running end-to-end journeys across the UK, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, Santander International offers a consistent colleague experience for easier cross-team collaboration on a single platform.

“The core vision of combining agile cloud-based technology with direct customer interaction through the Work Café initiative has set Santander International apart from the competition, driving significant market share, returning customers, and nearly £1bn in new lending” says Sean Gunning, VP UK & Ireland, nCino. nCino’s mortgage solution allows financial institutions to transition away from legacy architecture and remove manual processes that lead to high cost, inefficient operations.

In an ever-evolving and competitive market, nCino gives institutions the ability to configure the platform precisely to their requirements and eliminate vendor dependencies. This means lenders can make changes directly on the platform, and react more quickly to market shifts, customer preferences, and evolving regulations, while bringing products to market in a matter of hours, not months.

Request a Demo

“ That’s always very satisfying – seeing colleagues reaping the benefits of what we’re delivering” WILL WRIGHT

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SANTANDER INTERNATIONAL

Santander is one of the biggest banks in the world, at Santander International we need to be able to make local decisions on key partners who understand specific business models and the markets in which we operate. So, it goes back to that allimportant blend.”

Accelerating transformation Pressed on what the next couple of years might look like for Santander

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International, one word springs to mind for Wright: transformative.

His four years as COO have been spent developing a talented team, making crucial technology design decisions, building partner relationships and implementing strong foundations to accelerate transformation.

The expectation is that capabilities rolled out in 2024 and 2025 will end up delivering huge value to customers.

“It’s really exciting and is hugely valuable to colleagues as well because I really believe some of these platforms can make it more enjoyable to be at work.

“That’s always very satisfying – seeing colleagues reaping the benefits of what we’re delivering. It’s going to be challenging, but I think it’s going to be really rewarding.”

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Santander International

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