Over 1m
A4 letter cheques
7 weeks
Project delivery
100%
On time completion
3 sites
Secure print capability
Background
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.
The challenges
As part of ‘The Big Nationwide Thank You’ project, Nationwide proposed making a £50 payment to all eligible members, following the successful acquisition of Virgin Money, to be paid either electronically into member accounts, or where required, in the form of a £50 cheque.
Parseq worked closely with the Nationwide project team, who identified that over 1m A4 letter cheques, with up to 11 different templates, would need producing to successfully deliver the project.
This quantity required close collaboration between 2 of the 3 Parseq secure print units in Runcorn, Cheshire and Lisburn in Northern Ireland to be able to achieve an aggressive time line of 7 weeks to complete the task.
Nationwide were clear cheque fraud prevention measures must be included to help prevent fraud, and ensure that the cheques would be processed efficiently and without errors.
The solution
Parseq Runcorn printed all the required A4 base stock on CBS1 specification paper including Parseq’s own trademarked ‘Cheque Lock’ water mark. In addition, Parseq printed a Unique Coded Number (UCN) on the stock, an Image Survivable Feature (ISF) which would be read during the cheque clearing process to validate the cheque for added security.
Parseq then scheduled the over printing of member details onto up to 11 A4 letter templates between the Runcorn and Lisburn sites. Once over printed the letters were enveloped and mailed out to the member’s address.
Parseq provided a manual process to remove any cheques due to change in member’s circumstances and supplied a full data set for use by Nationwide operations. Parseq continue to provide a BAU service to Nationwide for cheque re-issues, and any new cheques required for ‘The Big Nationwide Thank You’ project.
Despite the rigid deadline, Parseq were able to produce and mail the £50 cheques within the defined 7 week period.
Successes
- Successfully produced over 1m secure letter cheques for ‘The Big Nationwide Thank You’ project (including cheque fraud prevention measures) approximately 10% of the circa 12 million paments made
- Delivered the project within an aggressive 7-week time line, ensuring on-time despatch
- Demonstrated strong collaboration between Parseq’s Runcorn and Lisburn teams
- Worked in close partnership with the Nationwide Project team to ensure smooth delivery
- Supported Nationwide’s strategic initiative to thank their members following the acquisition of Virgin Money
