National Australia Bank has put a new face in charge for the next stage of its massive technology overhaul, which is designed to help make the bank annual savings of A$800 million within five years.
NAB is a third of the way through a major technology refresh, rolling out a new core platform and upgrading and building new networks, data centres, and software.
In a technology update, the bank says that Gavin Slater, who has been leading the 'NextGen' project, is moving on, taking the role of group executive, personal banking.
He replaces Lisa Gray who in turn takes on his old responsibilities in a new, expanded role of group executive, enterprise services and transformation, where she will be in charge of operations, technology and project functions.
With the core banking upgrade, based on Oracle technology, near completion, the overhaul will now focus on enabling NAB to "align our business structure to the changing environment and changing customer behaviours," says CEO Cameron Clyne.
Clyne plans to combine simpler and fewer products with less technological complexity and a focus on digital channels and better use of data to make A$800 million in annual savings by the end a five year project.
Executive general manager Adam Bennett recently claimed that within months NAB customers will be making more transactions online and through their phones than in branches.
"In a digitised world, we need to ensure we can meet the future needs of our customers regardless of when, how and where they choose to deal with us," he says.
In line with this, the bank is currently piloting a mobile payments app, dubbed 'Kiss', with 1000 employees as it looks to catch up with ANZ's GoMoney and CBA's Kaching. According to ITNews, the iOS and Android apps lets users send and receive money using e-mail, SMS, QR code, and NFC.