Case Study: First direct becomes the UK’s first online bank with Nucleus

First direct cuts transaction costs from 30 pence to 2 pence with Nucleus

The customer, first direct, a pioneering UK telephone bank, faced the challenge of becoming the first online bank in 1996. They partnered with the vendor Nucleus and ICL Fujitsu to develop a distinctive and on-brand digital banking service for their customers.

Nucleus designed simple, fast, and functional interfaces that effectively migrated the first direct brand online. They worked with Fujitsu to build a robust and secure back-end. After a successful scalable pilot, the service launched fully. The solution by Nucleus was highly successful, generating a 20,000-person waiting list at launch. Within two years, over one million customers used the service, reducing the cost per transaction from 30 pence to just 2 pence.

First direct