The Darlington Building Society has made major investment in digital banking services.

The mutual says its upgrade will give members the option to open accounts online in a more streamlined way, provide self-service mortgage options and offer improved security with two-factor authentication.

The new functionality is powered by ieDigital’s Interact platform.

Chris Hunter, Darlington Building Society’s chief operating officer, said: “Investing in a new platform to digitally serve our customers is further evidence of our ‘members first’ strategy, which is contributing to solid growth in 2021. Enhancing our digital banking facilities for savings and mortgage customers, in conjunction with ieDigital, positions the Society for scalable growth. At the same time, it provides those of our members who want a digital service with the option to transact their way.

“The pandemic showed the importance of resilience and flexibility in how we serve members. We’re proud that we chose to keep branches open, expand our customer care team throughout the crisis, and maintain the high level of service our members are accustomed to.”

Jerry Young, CEO of ieDigital, added: “We’re delighted to partner with Darlington Building Society to help the Society extend its reach to savers and mortgage customers across the UK. Investing in Darlington Building Society’s online services is a recipe for scalable growth, while at the same time supporting the customer service excellence and member-focused ethos that the Society is renowned for.”

Hunter concluded: “ieDigital came top when we weighed all our criteria. They understand our market, the platform’s configurability and customer experience capabilities matched our vision, and the time to value made this the most compelling business case.”