Nationwide Builds Intelligent Enterprise with FICO Platform

As financial institutions look to reduce their technology debt and centralize their decision-making systems, they can look to Nationwide Building Society for an example. Nationwide, the UK’s third-largest mortgage provider and the world’s biggest building society, has revolutionized its credit risk and decisioning framework with FICO® Platform. By moving to a single, cloud-hosted system for decisioning across mortgages, credit cards, personal loans and current accounts, Nationwide is delivering “credit-risk-as-a-service”. They have truly built an intelligent enterprise.

Nationwide now uses FICO Platform to process around 1.5 million credit decisions monthly. And it has paid off with a 50% reduction in the time required to update scorecards, decision trees, and other decision components, as well as a 30% faster process for implementing new strategies.

“Transforming a system of this magnitude is no small feat, but the results speak for themselves,” said Andrew Lawrie, tech lead for credit risk at Nationwide Building Society.” We didn’t just move mortgages, loans, and cards to the FICO Platform; we reimagined how we make decisions. Now, changes that used to take weeks can be implemented in days, and our customers are seeing the benefits with faster, more personalized service.”

A Transformation to Meet Modern Banking Demands

The challenges that led Nationwide to adopt FICO Platform are familiar. They needed to mitigate the conduct risk associated with an outdated legacy technology stack, to centralize decision-making for the future and to align with the corporate strategy to transition to cloud-based services. By leveraging FICO Platform’s orchestration capabilities, Nationwide incorporated external data providers into its workflows, enhancing decision accuracy and delivering tailored customer experiences. This centralized approach eliminated reliance on fragmented systems, enabling a smoother transition to cloud-hosted services.

“With FICO Platform, we’ve moved from a fragmented legacy system to a unified, scalable decisioning framework,” added Lawrie. “This transition has empowered our teams to implement changes faster, minimize risks, and provide customers with faster, more personalized experiences.”

Nationwide Gains Intelligent Enterprise Benefits from Decision Platform Adoption

Here are some of the gains Nationwide has realized through its implementation of FICO Platform:

• Centralized Decisioning: Unified decision-making processes across mortgages, loans, and cards, enabling consistent application of policies and strategies.
• 50% Faster Policy Changes: Simplified workflows allow multiple resources to collaborate on changes, reducing change implementation time by half.
• Real-Time Credit Limit Increases: Enabled instant credit limit adjustments, improving customer satisfaction and regulatory responsiveness.
• Enhanced Integration Options: Federated Data Orchestration supports seamless integration with external data providers, improving accuracy in affordability assessments and income verification.
• Scalable Rollout: Successfully migrated five products in 12 months, with plans to integrate overdrafts and credit line increases by 2025. 

“This transformation wasn’t just about upgrading technology; it was about staying true to what makes us Nationwide — our members,” said Lawrie. “By moving to a unified decisioning platform, we’ve made it easier to deliver smarter, faster decisions that genuinely improve our members’ lives. Whether it’s helping someone secure their first mortgage or offering quicker, more accurate approvals, we’re building a foundation that keeps our members’ needs at the heart of everything we do.”

Driving Customer Satisfaction and Industry Recognition

A 2024 report by Forrester Research put Nationwide third in the UK for Net Promoter Scores, and first among the UK’s high street financial services institutions. This shows the power of the intelligent enterprise Nationwide has built, using FICO technology.

“Nationwide’s project reflects the precision and expertise required to migrate from legacy systems while maintaining continuity for customers and operations,” said Erin Stillwell, EVP, payment partnerships at Blankfactor, one of the FICO Decision Awards judges. “Their success in implementing a scalable decisioning platform is a testament to their commitment to operational excellence and customer satisfaction.”

We are proud to award Nationwide Building Society a 2025 FICO® Decision Award for Cloud Deployment. The FICO Decisions Awards recognize organisations that are achieving remarkable success using FICO solutions. A panel of independent judges with deep industry expertise and insights evaluates nominations based upon measurable improvement in key metrics; demonstrated use of best practices; project scale, depth and breadth; and innovative uses of technology. To see the full list of 2025 FICO Decisions Awards winners, check out: https://www.fico.com/en/decisionawards.

How FICO Can Help You Build an Intelligent Enterprise

• Explore banking innovation and AI with FICO Platform
• Watch the video “FICO® Platform: Applied Intelligence, when and where it matters”
• See clients discuss their use of FICO Platform
• Read Bill Waid’s article on banking innovation in The Journal of Digital Banking, “How Financial Services Leaders Are Using Enterprise Intelligence to Optimize Efficiency Ratios”
• Watch FICO Platform in action with the story of everyday consumer Digital Jane