18th April 2006
A new era dawned in Northern Irish banking today with the transformation of Northern Bank into one of the most technologically advanced financial institutions in Europe.
Bank staff have been working throughout the holiday weekend to implement the £100 million investment funded by Northern’s parent Danske Bank.
The operation was one of the most complex of its kind with more than 2,500 employees from Northern and Danske involved.
Locally, over 150 members of staff spent 13 months completing the work which involved transferring more than 1.5 million customer records and other data onto a state of the art platform which Northern shares with other banks’ in the Danske Bank Group. An upgrade of branches will be completed over the next few weeks.
Northern’s chief executive Don Price said “It’s been a really challenging process but we emerge today as a new bank with one of the most advanced technology platforms anywhere.”
“Our staff have undergone intensive training on the new systems and we are confident that customers will soon see the positive benefits of this investment. The new system will release huge amounts of resources allowing staff to dedicate more time to our customers.”
“Our new eBanking service is state of the art. Customers can set up their own direct debit, pay someone in the Eurozone and there is even a service that tells them whenever money is being credited or debited to the account. And most important, they will be able to see all accounts and transactions online and in one screen.”
Northern has also opened a new service centre, Customer Direct, in its Belfast head office. It is staffed by professional bankers who have access to the same level of information as staff in the branches. They can transfer money, set up direct debits and even grant an overdraft during the weekend.
A whole range of new products and banking packages are being launched. A team of over 300 Danish bankers are currently in Northern Ireland helping to ensure a smooth transition to the new system.
Ends
Issued by Communications Department, Northern Bank Limited. For further information, please contact Pamela Yeh on 028 9004 7729.
Notes to Editors
Northern Bank is the oldest and one of the largest banks in Northern Ireland. It became part of the Danske Bank Group in February 2005.
Facts and figures in relation to Northern Bank’s investment programme:
- Over 2,500 employees have been involved in the programme
- Working across 85 projects
- Over 3000 new desktop and laptop computers were installed
- Over 150 staff in Northern Ireland spent 13 months transferring customers records and data
- 1,050 software developers and users conducted 50,000 system tests
- 1.5 million customer records and 1.1 million accounts were created onto the new system
- a 206 miles of datacomms cable were laid in Northern Bank branches to support the new IT equipment, the equivalent of travelling from Belfast to Dublin and back.