Beyond Bank and P&N merge to be as “seamless as possible”

With Beyond Bank and P&N Bank announcing plans to merge, technology transition plans will be “seamless as possible for both our customers and people”, according to Beyond Bank chief information officer, Stevie-Ann Dovico.

Beyond Bank chief information officer, Stevie-Ann Dovico

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to unite was announced Thursday with the combined assets of the two banks expected to reach $20 billion.

Dovico told Digital Nation overall, the merge will create a “better experience” as the two financial institutions will be able to “add a range of products and services and new offerings”.  

“That ensures we keep pace with the competitive pressures in Australian banking.

“Also, the national footprint will grow so we’ll be able to create a national footprint of branches and people on the ground both in metropolitan and regional areas for all of the customers to access.”

Dovico said the new entity will grow its presence across Melbourne and Sydney with customers benefiting from the increased staff and “financial capacity to invest even further in strengthening the local communities in which we operate”.

Under the new bank, all employees will continue to “have a job in roles that align with their talent and experience and the needs of the merged entity” with career growth “a focus in a bigger, stronger bank”.

The former NAB senior leader said despite the early days of the news, with Beyond Bank’s experience with mergers it’s expected the first of July 2025 will be “legal day one” for the new bank.

“It’s a philosophy of ours when we merge is to make this a 12-month exercise and we do everything from process to tech onto one stack in 12 months, that's the goal.”

Regarding the technology amalgamation between Beyond Bank and P&N Bank, Dovico is “absolutely committed to making the integration of tech stacks as seamless as possible for both our customers and people.”

“We want to look at both stacks and bring together the best of both worlds in terms of existing tech investments.

“We're absolutely not interested in running multiple stacks for the long term. Part of what makes this easier is we are on the same core and payments platforms that are really the engine room of our bank.”

“It’s a really good fit culturally and strategically. Our strategies are complementary in the fact that we have both focused on the modernisation of legacy tech, we're focused on leveraging our data and digital capabilities to create and return value for our customers and communities, digitisation and driving operational efficiencies through tech.

“It’s a very exciting time,” Dovico added.

“The market success here is that people don't even notice the tech. We just keep it running.”

With the focus for Dovico on modernisation, step one is to “integrate really quickly” with “step two looking at the tech stack of the future”.

“We keep pace with our customer expectations and empower our people to not have to worry about the tech [and] to really focus in on having those human-to-human conversations and have that tech really enable those conversations through insights and efficiencies.”

Dovico took on the CIO role earlier this year after shifting to the customer-owned bank from NAB earlier this year.

Dovico said both organisations will work together “to deep dive” into the best strategy when tackling systems integrations plus detailing modernisation plans.

“Banking has changed significantly in the past decade; we must continue to grow and evolve to ensure we stay strong and ready for whatever the future holds.

Dovico added the boost in people and financial capacity will “assist us in enabling the continuation of our bright future.”

“With critical investments required in digital banking, cyber security, technology, and regulation, to name just a few, achieving scale through mergers like this can help ensure that we remain competitive and sustainable so we are here to support our customers with great value and service now and in the future”.

For Dovico, the most exciting part of the merger is the chance to scale as this provides the “ability to further invest in technology and modern technologies.”

“That means we can offer more exciting things to our customers.”