Monmouthshire Building Society, one of Wales’s largest and most successful financial institutions, has been named the winner of the 2012 Online Retail Awards in the category for Finance & Insurance companies.
The Society have been recognised for producing a feature rich website that takes advantage of ongoing technological developments in online retail to provide constantly improving services to its customers. The Society’s website was developed in partnership with Imaginet, a Cardiff-based web design and development agency.
The Online Retail Awards are international and independent business awards that can be won by online retailers of any size anywhere in the world. The aim of the awards is to publicly reward retailers whose websites offer a great online experience for customers.
The judge’s comments described the Society website as ‘A bright and breezy experience, with drop down lists reducing the amount of clicking around so prevalent on other financial services sites’. The Society beat off stiff competition from a major US finance company and a UK bank to secure first place.
Andrew Lewis, Chief Executive of Monmouthshire Building Society, said, “In recent years, the Society has significantly invested in its online presence, which has primarily involved redeveloping our website to enable customers to access a greater number of services online.”
He continued “We are delighted to have been recognised for the quality of our website, which is proving to be a key contributor to our business growth. Although the Society is now over 140 years old, we understand that as times change, so must the way in which we engage with customers. Our online developments demonstrate how we are utilising new technology to adapt the business to meet the changing needs of customers and the market place in which we operate”.
Monmouthshire Building Society was previously awarded the Excellence in e-Commerce award at the inaugural IWA/Western Mail Business Awards in 2011, in recognition of the Society’s innovative use of e-commerce, which has helped the business to increase its UK market share for mortgages and savings business
The Newport-based mutual Society recently announced another excellent set of annual results, in which its assets grew to a record £819M, up from £742M the previous year. In the twelve months to 30th April 2012, it experienced 10.3% growth, whilst profit after tax reached £2.7m, as customers continued to respond to the Society’s secure track record, quality of service and competitive product range.