Intelligent Finance, or IF, are a defunct brand these days, so I guess migration costs would be far outstripped by maintenance of their old platforms, some of which are antiquated.
Iâd have thought they were on the standard LBG platform, non?
I worked on the migration team at Lloyds in 2011 when the HBOS platform was migrated to the Lloyds platform and we went through months of testing over weekends with varying amounts of data it was an interesting time and was (at itâs time) the largest banking migration in Europe when it finally happened in Sept '11
I donât remember if they ever migrated to the same core banking platform, but IF will be using systems that other parts of the bank do not.
Interestingly their pensions back book was outsourced the other year in order to avoid investing in technology
And we all sighed with relief when it was delivered
Do you have insight into the LBG architecture?
I ask because weâre otherwise just guessing, but a multitude of things can be meant by platform. I read it as a replacement for the core ledger and bank processing, which almost certainly have the mainframe as source. In this series, IF would be a great test as youâre moving from the same thing as you would be later for the bigger brands.
Where the brands diverge, or elements like UI/apps deviate, though is something Iâm not sure Iâd even want to guess at. From what Iâve seen of the Halifax stuff, it all seems (logo aside) pretty homogenous. In an ideal world theyâd be built on using reusable APIs, but theyâre probably not thereâŠ
I wonder if @davidroberts can share any insight?
Limited, which is why I donât know.
It closed its books in 2013 or 14 if I remember rightly, so I donât know if they migrated to the new online platform, and Iâm pretty certain they never developed an app for it. I donât remember if they were included in the core migration back in 2011.
Anyway, itâs largely irrelevant I guess. It costs billions per year to maintain the existing infrastructure, so as much as it might cost to migrate, the benefits to be gained in future years will be the âeyes on the prizeâ.
Iâd say this is a testament to Monzoâs impact in the last 2-3 years - big banks like lloyds now pushing forward with major migrations, despite all the potential pains and risks (TSB!), in order to provide a better digital experience for users
My partner just got a letter through the post about a long forgotten savings account.
Not showing in the app. (Not sure why she still had the app!?) Called customer services, they said to re-register for online banking, tried to re-register it needed an account number and sort code. Only half an account number on the letter so couldnât use that, no idea what the rest was.
So thought weâd call back, couldnât pass security at first as we didnât know the balance or last transactions on the account, (she hasnât been an active Lloyds customer for 3-4 years). We managed to get through with a few bits of personal info and was informed we could now go and re-register. Went back to online banking to do so, plonked all the mountains of info they needed into the contact form we were given a ten digit reference number that we had to call back and give to customer support.
It was at this point we gave up. Theyâll be pence in the account anyway.
Well, credit where itâs due. Iâve been giving Lloyds a good airing over the past six months or so and I have to say theyâve not put a foot wrong.
I got interested when the word was being put about that Lloyds were making the running app-wise, in the high street.
Opening the account (Club Lloyds) was a doddle, seemingly as frictionless as either Monzo or Starling had been.
Credit card facilities were offered with no fuss (didnât really need it, but hey ho, handy just in case eh?).
The app has been coming on nicely - well laid out and feature-rich (although not festooned with those irritating budgeting tools much vaunted elsewhere).
Everythingâs instant update-wise with notifications seemingly happening as we speak. Funnily enough, Iâm so pleased with the overall experience that the current absence of the odd feature isnât a thing - it would be elsewhereâŠ
Customer service by phone is really nice - required mainly for one-off set up things - not required for problem-solving.
And it looks nice.
There you are - thatâs me and my barrowâs outside (one of my mumâs, that - blowed if I know what it means ).
Itâs funny how these things are so subjective with a bank.
Iâve had two bad experiences with Lloyds recently. Couldnât change my Lloyds credit card amount in the app but you can via the web. Couldnât get any sense out of them with a unauthorised transaction and 14 hour chat delay where I got more survey messages than I did messages of help.
Constant messages when you log in that you have to dismiss to get to your accounts.
But itâs good that you like it!
Does anyone know if the Lloyds app is the same as the Bank of Scotland / Halifax ones?
It differs considerably from the RBS offering.
Exactly the same in all features
Yup, same app. Get the same updates and everything. However I find the Lloyds one better than Halifax, aesthetically speaking.
I agree, I think the Lloyds and Bank of Scotland apps are far nicer than Halifax even though they are essentially all the same.
Halifax used to be really ugly but now it isnât quite as bad as it was.
And @Demmedelusive, there is a difference between the Bank of Scotland (a Lloyds Banking Group brand in Scotland) and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, of financial crisis fame and part of the group that includes NatWest). Easily confused, and you are not the first to do so!
Are RBS & Bank of Scotland different banks?
If they are, then Iâm wrong in asserting theyâre different from Lloyds. My RBS app is a world apart from Lloyds.
(Oops, thanks @SebH⊠I withdrawâŠ).
Yes they are!
Itâs RBS, NatWest, Ulster Bank (and Coutts, Adam & Co, Child & Co, Drummonds, and Holtâs Military Banking)
Separate is Lloyds Banking Group of Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax.
TaâŠ
Youâre welcome!
For what itâs worth, the same situation of an identical app re-skinned applies over at RBS, with NatWest and the others being identical.
Anyway, I donât want to drag the thread off topic so to return to LloydsâŠ
Itâs interesting to me that Lloyds now appear to have managed to update their systems so that notifications, which did often appear to be delayed, now seem near-enough instant for me.
I suspect this is built on top of their existing ancient mainframe as an additional âlayerâ to the system, but it seems that this is not a problem except in terms of increasing code complexity.
I think I read somewhere that even faster payments are a fudge at some banks, and apparently one high street bank was still running mainframe code from the 1970s which expected ticker-tape input as recently as 5 years ago (it probably still is). Apparently they had to write emulation code to produce stand-in ticker-tape output code, without the actual tape! Crazy! But it works and seems to be reliable so banks donât want to take the risk of migration.
Lloyds have confirmed they are cutting 1070 jobs.