Nationwide
6 min
Nationwide Building Society is a British mutual financial institution and the largest building society in the world, headquartered in Swindon.
Founded in 1884, Nationwide serves over 16 million members and operates entirely for their benefit, without shareholders. The society was established through the consolidation of over 250 smaller UK building societies through the 20th century culminating in the acquisition of Virgin Money UK in October 2024.
What our client needed
As part of ‘The Big Nationwide Thank You’ initiative, and following the acquisition of Virgin Money, Nationwide Building Society proposed issuing a £50 payment to all eligible members, either electronically into member accounts or, where required, by cheque.
Working closely with the Nationwide project team, we identified that more than one million A4 letter cheques - across up to 11 different templates - would need to be produced to successfully deliver the programme.
To meet the demanding seven-week delivery timeframe, the project required close collaboration between our secure print facilities across the UK. Nationwide also specified that robust cheque fraud prevention measures had to be incorporated throughout the process to minimise fraud risk and ensure all cheques could be processed accurately and efficiently.
What we gave them
We printed all required A4 base stock on CBS1 specification paper, incorporating our trademarked ‘Cheque Lock’ watermark for enhanced security. In addition, each cheque included a Unique Coded Number (UCN) and an Image Survivable Feature (ISF), enabling validation during the cheque clearing process and providing an additional layer of fraud protection.
We then coordinated the overprinting of member details across up to 11 A4 letter templates within our secure print network. Once personalised, the letters were securely enveloped and mailed directly to members’ addresses.
To support the project further, we implemented a manual process to remove any cheques impacted by changes in members’ circumstances and supplied a comprehensive data set for use by Nationwide’s operations team. We also continue to provide a business-as-usual service for cheque reissues and any additional cheque requirements linked to ‘The Big Nationwide Thank You’ initiative.
Despite the challenging timeframe and scale of the programme, we successfully produced and mailed all £50 cheques within the agreed seven-week delivery period.
What was the impact
- Successfully produced over 1m secure letter cheques for ‘The Big Nationwide Thank You’ project (including cheque fraud prevention measures), which made up approximately 10% of the circa 12 million payments made
- Supported Nationwide’s strategic initiative to thank their members following the acquisition of Virgin Money
- We delivered the project within an aggressive seven-week timeline, ensuring on-time despatch
- We worked in close partnership with the Nationwide Project team to ensure smooth delivery