How Lloyds Banking Group deploys solutions at hyper speed

With age comes experience. And when a business has been around for more than 320 years – as is the case with Britain’s largest retail bank, Lloyds Banking Group – all that experience can create a powerful advantage in the market.

Yet even historic businesses like Lloyds Banking Group face many of the same challenges younger businesses experience today: new technology, workflow bottlenecks, outdated systems, economic uncertainty, and stressed employees and customers.

Luckily, with the right solutions partner, Lloyds Banking Group knew they could overcome today’s challenges and prepare for what lies ahead with rapid, low code development. Juan Gomez-Reino, Chief Technology Officer of Lloyds Bank, shared how they have adapted at our 2022 PegaWorld iNspire keynote event.

Shifting priorities, goals, and the definition of a customer

Lloyds Banking Group has always had one mission: “Helping Britain prosper.” But over the years, and as the pandemic created monumental shifts for both employees and customers, Lloyds Banking Group needed to consider their core strategic priorities. As Juan noted, they narrowed it down to three:

1. Drive revenue growth and diversification
2. Make an efficient use of resources (improve cost management and capital allocation)
3. Focus on technology, talent, and data (simplify and modernize)

With these shifts in priorities, Lloyds Banking Group also needed to rethink their understanding of whom digital transformation impacts. While nearly 30 million customers bank with Lloyds, there are also 32,000 agents working within their systems and directly with those customers. Both agents and customers need to be satisfied for a digital solution to be considered a success.

“It’s no longer that we deliver technology, but we deliver products and services for internal and external customers,” Juan told our audience. With that in mind, they started their digital transformation journey.

Taking development into hyper speed

As Juan Gomez-Reino explained, Lloyds Banking Group is equipped with 50 key systems and more than 300 business workflows. It wouldn’t be an easy job to refine these processes, nor to have all 32,000 agents and 30 million customers take the leap, too. They needed a solution that could easily scale, and they were excited to partner with Pega.

When asked about any applications that stood out, Juan spoke about Breathing Space, “a UK government initiative that aims to alleviate the stress caused by debt” through compassionate collections. Juan explained the scope of this project, “Within the first year, we expect to be supporting 700,000 people in the UK, so that's a lot of people.”

Through Pega’s low-code platform, and using the Pega framework, Lloyds Banking Group was able to design, test, and launch Breathing Space within 59 days. Once launched, they were able to expand the service across 17 brands and 53 different debt types to accept applications and serve a few hundred thousand customers.

In prior developments, Lloyds Banking Group would take anywhere from six to nine months for a typical release. Cutting development and launch down from nine months to just under two had a dramatic impact on their digital transformation journey.

“The days of quarterly or monthly releases are over. We are releasing more than 500 times into production, per year. We're making reuse of some of the Pega framework, so reusability is top of mind for us. And we are gaining customer advocacy, so internally, there is a pull to use more of Pega functionality and help us deliver on our business needs and imperatives of going faster, cheaper, safer. It's been, all-in-all, a great experience and a good showcase from the group.”

Where Lloyds Banking Group will grow next

Since launching Breathing Space, Lloyds Banking Group has expanded their digital transformation efforts across the business. With the help of Pega, they were able to decrease 48 different applications down to 20, and that’s just the beginning for the bank. As Juan shared, “Today, we make on average two releases per day.”

As they continue to expand the business and align on priorities, Juan believes Lloyds Banking Group has a bright future ahead. “We have very ambitious plans,” he shared. “One area of focus to mention is that we’re going to invest more in people.” Through Pega Academy, Juan hopes to increase their team of 80 low-code experts through training and accreditation. Once they grow the team, they can spearhead digital transformation across the business.

“Today, we are supported by more than 500 external people that we call partners and are strictly part of the team, but we want more of those capabilities … so that we are in control of our destiny. There is a very promising future ahead.”

Building a business that’s ready for anything

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that the only certainty is uncertainty. If businesses want to survive through tumultuous times, the secret is adaptability. Lloyds Banking Group realized that as they transformed their business, and after 320 years in the industry, they know what it takes to be ready for anything. Luckily, with the right low-code partner, Lloyds Banking Group found a solution that not only helps them adapt quickly but delights both customers and agents alike.