NatWest has engaged Accenture and Amazon Web Services to overhaul its data systems, an effort aimed at modernizing technology and cutting costs.

Faster Fraud Warnings for Clients

This five-year partnership will see a redesign of NatWest’s data storage processes. The goal is to reduce delays in fraud risk notifications, currently taking up to five days, to just hours.

AWS and Accenture plan to integrate customer data under one system for efficient storage and use. This should facilitate a more personalized experience for customers while streamlining the process of warning them about fraudulent activities.

Currently, it takes NatWest five days to review information before alerting clients about potential scams. The bank believes that with its new setup, this process can be significantly expedited.

The move comes as younger customers increasingly favor fintechs offering user-friendly mobile app solutions, like Revolut. This has prompted banks to upgrade their outdated systems. NatWest’s competitor, Lloyds Banking Group, is focusing on digitalization for its upcoming five-year business plan.

While the IT overhaul may result in job losses, NatWest stated that this was not the project’s primary objective and declined to comment on potential job reductions. Such major overhauls typically cost tens of millions of pounds annually, as evidenced by TSB’s issues when moving data from Lloyds’ systems to those managed by Sabadell.