Bankwest unveils new app and website in major brand + CX overhaul via EY Future Friendly + AKQA

Bankwest has built and launched a new banking app and website, kickstarting an overhaul of the Bankwest brand and its digital customer experiences, with an ambition to be Australia’s favourite digital bank. Bankwest worked with EY Future Friendly to design and deliver its digital experiences across Bankwest’s new app and website with the foundational brand identity designed by AKQA.

The launch builds on Bankwest’s 2024 digital transformation, with a goal to rapidly grow its eastern states customer base, where it has been fully digital since 2021, and where more than half its customers live.

• Bankwest is working with EY Future Friendly to re-design and deliver intuitive customer experiences that will help customers know where their money is, move it easily, and hit their property goals.
• The app includes a refreshed home screen and a ‘money’ tab to view transactions, new search functionality, and a dedicated ‘property’ tab for home loan information, all with 24/7 in-app support.
• A new Virtual Cards feature, available via app soon, will enable customers to create single or multi-use and timelimited debit or credit cards, offering an added layer of protection when making payments.
• A new brand platform and national marketing campaign will launch in 2025 via Bear Meets Eagle On Fire to reposition Bankwest in the national banking sector with a fresh, distinct identity and proposition to customers across Australia.

Bankwest Chief Digital Officer Eleanor Bensley said: “We’ve conducted hundreds of hours of testing with customers and non-customers across Australia and we know there’s a significant segment of the market looking for a simpler, less complicated relationship with their bank.

“These Australians are telling us they want just the right amount of bank in their lives, one that’s working hard behind the scenes to help them manage their money, while they focus on what’s important in their lives.

“Our Bankwest team has started with a blank sheet to re-design and build from scratch a refreshing and distinctive banking app, website and set of end-to-end experiences with our customers that we hope they’ll love.

EY Future Friendly Leader Nick Gower said: “Our EY Future Friendly project team has spent 12 months in ongoing collaboration with Bankwest customers and non-customers, including quantitative studies, one-on-one sessions and field research, to understand their banking needs and help provide experiences they will value.

“It’s been fantastic to work with Bankwest as it has redesigned and rebuilt its app, website and signature experiences from the ground up, hand in hand with customers, so that everything is designed from the customer perspective.”

Bankwest General Manager Customer, Marketing and Communications Jodene Murphy said: “Our aim is to create a digital banking experience that truly stands out in the Australian financial services landscape, and which is designed to meet the needs of a growing number of customers and brokers nationwide.

“We have exciting plans to deliver refreshing and distinctive digital banking experiences in our app and website and we’re really looking forward to unveiling our new national brand campaign in 2025.”

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