NatWest Bankline Direct Digital solution enhances UK and European payment scheme connectivity and compliance for large Corporates and Financial Institutions

LONDON, November 6, 2024 – NatWest has partnered with Capco, the global management and technology consultancy, to ensure a smooth transition for its systems and clients as the financial industry moves to adopt ISO 20022 for payments and reporting. 

The collaboration facilitates customer, operational and infrastructure opportunities through the development of Bankline Direct Digital, the new strategic ISO 20022 compliant cloud-based architecture behind Bankline Direct. Bankline Direct is a cash management solution for large corporates and financial institutions that fully integrates with Treasury Management Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning platforms to automate payment processing and data reconciliation and provide connectivity to UK and European payment schemes.

The transition to Bankline Direct Digital  accelerates and streamlines connectivity, ensures long-term regulatory compliance and alignment with global standards, boosts resilience and security, and offers scalability while supporting enhanced decision making and business intelligence.

Jonathan Hall, Head of Digital, Commercial & Institutions at NatWest, said: “We are committed to supporting our clients build a better tomorrow today. Given 24/7 e-commerce, the continued rise in mobile and online payments and consumers’ desire for seamless multichannel experiences, treasuries need to automate and optimise back-office processes or risk falling behind. The ongoing evolution of the digital landscape is changing the way our clients want to bank with us and Bankline Direct Digital meets this demand for a more connected, intuitive customer experience and enhanced technology and compliance capabilities.” 

NatWest’s partnership with Capco has helped the bank improve customer experiences, comply with UK and European regulatory payment standards, and build a competitive advantage through the continuous deployment of modern technology at scale – enabling more of our customers to benefit from efficiencies in their financial payments and reporting processes.  Bankline Direct already supports over 500 corporate and institutional clients, offering payment services to four million retail and corporate customers, and Capco is continuing to support NatWest in transitioning those customers to the new architecture.

Jennifer Scott, Managing Director, Head of Digital Technology, Commercial & Institutions at NatWest, said: “We’ve invested hugely in our digital banking suite, transforming services to be more modular and flexible by design, with the ambition to be the bank of choice for UK businesses and the simplest bank for corporates and other financial institutions. To support this, we’ve launched three core services to enable payment scaling, to adapt to and grow with our customers, and improve reliability of the channel by operating with minimal downtime. These include an Intelligent Router, a Payments Orchestration Layer, and a Data sync layer.”

Richard Lewis, Partner & Head of Client Service Excellence at Capco, said: “We are delighted to bring our long heritage of digital transformation in banking and payments and other financial services industry domains to this collaboration with NatWest. With Bankline Direct Digital, we have helped the bank transition from a complex and capacity-constrained legacy architecture to a scalable launch pad for near real-time connectivity that can accommodate customers’ ever-changing payment, data and regulatory needs.”

Key benefits of Bankline Direct Digital (BDD) include:

• Seamless – A host-to-host solution, BDD enables frictionless onboarding by integrating customer inhouse systems to the Bank, to make straight-through payments and receive data in real-time. Providing customers with the building blocks to launch their digital propositions without the technical complexities. 
  
• Secure – A robust platform, BDD uses industry protocols to authenticate the flow of financial information when making payments and receiving data to prevent financial fraud. 
  
• Smart –  Built intelligently, using industry standards, BDD empowers customers to be data driven whilst supporting them with specialist expertise.  

About NatWest
NatWest serves customers in England and Wales, supporting them with their personal, private, and business banking needs. NatWest helps customers at all stages in their lives, from opening student accounts, to buying their first home, setting up a business, and saving for retirement. Alongside a wide range of banking services, NatWest offers businesses specialist sector knowledge in areas such as sustainable energy, manufacturing, commercial property and technology, as well as access to specialist entrepreneurial support.

About Capco
Capco, a Wipro company, is a global management and technology consultancy specializing in driving transformation in the financial services and energy industries. With a growing client portfolio comprising of over 100 global organizations, Capco operates at the intersection of business and technology by combining innovative thinking with unrivalled industry knowledge to fast-track digital initiatives for the banking and payments, capital markets, insurance, wealth and asset management, and energy sectors. Capco’s cutting-edge ingenuity is brought to life through its award-winning Be Yourself At Work culture and diverse talent. To learn more, visit www.capco.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.