Nottingham Building Society Cuts Rate-Change Processing from Weeks to Minutes with AND Digital

Nottingham Building Society has slashed the time required to prepare customer rate-change communications from two weeks to under 15 minutes. By deploying a Microsoft Fabric data lake platform built by AND Digital, the mutual is addressing critical FCA Consumer Duty requirements, ensuring members receive timely information during periods of interest rate volatility while eliminating manual spreadsheet reconciliation.

What was announced

The deployment of the Microsoft Fabric data platform represents a significant shift in how Nottingham Building Society handles its member data. Previously, the 176-year-old mutual struggled with fragmented information spread across SOPRA and Salesforce systems. This fragmentation led to conflicting records and unreliable contact details, forcing staff to manually reconcile spreadsheets and rely on physical mailings to communicate interest rate changes to customers.

The new platform, delivered within a 12-week timeframe by AND Digital, consolidates customer data into a single source of truth. By utilizing advanced Power BI dashboards fed by the Microsoft Fabric data lake, the Society’s staff now have a clearer, unified view of their membership. This capability is specifically designed to help the mutual proactively identify vulnerable customers and ensure the provision of fair value, as mandated by the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty regulations.

Beyond immediate communication efficiency, the platform is designed to break down long-standing data silos within the organisation. As the platform continues to evolve, it will allow underwriters to move away from rigid scoring models. Instead, they will be able to assess risk more accurately and design flexible mortgage products tailored for under-served, complex borrowers who might not fit standard lending criteria. The project was completed in collaboration with technology teams at Microsoft and aligns with the Society’s broader strategic driver of "Purposeful Innovation."

"When interest rates change, it is essential that our customers receive clear information as quickly as possible, so they have enough time to understand their options and make informed decisions around their products, such as their financial savings and mortgages."

Mark Akerman, Director of Delivery and Data at Nottingham Building Society.

The companies involved

Nottingham Building Society is a UK-based mutual financial services provider with a history spanning 176 years. As a member-owned organisation, it operates without external shareholders, focusing instead on providing savings and mortgage products to its members. The Society was recently selected for the FCA/PRA Scale-up Unit, a testament to its efforts to modernise its operations while maintaining the strict governance and regulatory standards required of a regulated financial institution.

AND Digital is a technology consultancy that specialises in building modern data platforms and accelerating digital capabilities for its clients. The firm employs a unique service model designed to close the digital skills gap by working alongside a client’s internal teams rather than operating in isolation. AND Digital has extensive experience within the financial services sector, particularly in partnering with building societies to navigate complex regulatory environments. For this project, the firm provided the technical resources and speed necessary to meet a tight three-month delivery window, bridging the gap where the Society lacked internal capacity to build a scalable, modern data architecture from scratch.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the digital transformation journey of Nottingham Building Society. In April 2026, we reported that the Nottingham Building Society Completes Core Banking Modernisation With SBS, a move that laid the groundwork for its current data initiatives. This focus on infrastructure is timely, as our reporting on Data Fragmentation Stalling AI-Driven Loyalty for Two-Thirds of Financial Firms highlighted how disconnected systems prevent institutions from delivering personalised value. Additionally, the broader industry move toward automated efficiency was recently mirrored in our coverage of Brickflow and Together Launch Instant Automated Decisions-in-Principle for Commercial Brokers, illustrating a sector-wide push to replace manual processes with real-time data solutions.

What this means

The transition from a two-week manual process to a 15-minute automated one puts significant pressure on other mid-tier mutuals still tethered to legacy systems. In the era of Consumer Duty, "best efforts" in communication are no longer sufficient; the FCA expects an agility that manual spreadsheets simply cannot provide. This announcement highlights that the primary hurdle for legacy institutions is no longer the technology itself—Microsoft Fabric is a known quantity—but the speed of integration. As data silos dissolve, the industry should expect a shift in the mortgage market, where the ability to underwrite complex cases through data, rather than rigid scores, becomes a key competitive battleground.