Apple Pay the way for UK’s CYBG banking group
UK-based Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank – which together form CYBG – have introduced Apple Pay to its customers.
The payments service is also available to its “B” customers. In May, CYBG unveiled a new digital banking platform, called B, as it gets ready to become a standalone challenger bank.
Helen Page, chief marketing officer at CYBG, says introducing Apple Pay is the “latest initiative in our omni-channel strategy across the business, which is centred on using digitisation to deliver better, sustainable services for customers”.
The development follows the group’s announcement it would invest £100 million a year on technology and change in its organisation.
At the back office, CYBG’s comprising banks are long-standing users of Misys’ Equation core banking system.
The B platform was the first major product launch by CYBG since its demerger from National Australia Bank (NAB), following three decades of being part of the NAB group.
CYBG was floated on the London Stock Exchange and Australian Securities Exchange in early 2016 and was valued at £1.6 billion (approximately 40% of book value). NAB paid £420 million for Clydesdale Bank in 1987 and £900 million for Yorkshire Bank in 1990.
In its intention to float statement in December 2015, CYBG said it aims to offer a “differentiated proposition relative to the UK challengers” and has “a clear strategy to drive growth and deliver double-digit RoTE [return on tangible equity]”.
CYBG has around 2.8 million retail and business customers, with £26.3 million of customer deposits and a £28.7 million customer loan portfolio.
