Truist Bank opens innovation, technology center at uptown HQ
Truist unveiled its new Innovation and Technology Center at the bank’s uptown headquarters on Tuesday. The bank features a common area called “the park,” complete with greenery and turf.
Courtesy of Truist
Truist Bank is looking to fuse tech and finance with a new 100,000-square-foot banking innovation and technology center that debuted Tuesday at its headquarters in uptown Charlotte.
The two-football-field sized facility will serve as a research lab and collaboration hub for engineers, designers and customers to “build a better banking experience,” Truist said in a news release Tuesday.
It includes customer meeting rooms, indoor “tree houses” and virtual reality labs to help bankers design and protect prototype digital products.
The center will help propel Truist into the future of digital banking, said Chief Information Officer Scott Case.
The features include:
▪ A makerspace to design and test products
▪ “Tree Houses,” creative spaces looking out over the main floor that can be used to meet or showcase prototypes
▪ An 18-person call center for engineers and designers to get feedback from customers
▪ A common area called “The Park,” complete with greenery, swings and natural light
▪ A lab where the focus is on using virtual and augmented reality technology to “create the future of banking.”
Programs for innovators
Truist has been planning for the center over a year and originally planned to open it in late 2021.
In addition to the new center, Truist is also launching an “Innovators in Residence” program. The program will bring leaders from tech firms and startups to “explore new and emerging technologies” that could help solve industry challenges, the bank said in its release.
Verizon, Amazon Web Services and cloud computing company Unqork are all founding partners of that program.
Truist ranks low in digital banking
Truist Bank has some catching up to do with its competitors when it comes to digital banking.
Consumer research firm JD Power ranked the bank last among its peers this month for customer satisfaction with its mobile app and overall online experience, The Winston-Salem Journal reported.
Other banks with a Charlotte presence, like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, rank among the best in the industry for their mobile app and online banking, respectively.
Still, most Truist customers are still interacting with the bank online, Truist has said – 87% of customer interactions at the bank are digital, according to its website.
Improving digital options for customers has been a key focus for Truist since SunTrust and BB&T merged to form the bank in 2019. The bank launched a new mobile banking app and website as part of the merger last year.
Truist employs over 50,000 workers. The bank has about 2,800 employees in the greater Charlotte area.
General Chat Chat Lounge