Truist begins phased rollout to customers of unified digital platform

The news: Truist is bringing its digital platform out into the wild through its first phased deployment to customers, the bank disclosed in its Q2 2021 earnings call. The phased rollout will occur throughout the second half of this year and will include up to 500,000 customers in July alone, William H. Rogers Jr, Truist’s COO and president, said on the call. Truist already did a pilot rollout to its employees in March 2021.

More on this: Truist shared a glimpse of its unified platform, detailing how small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers can use its new mobile app. Features include:

• One set of log-in credentials for SMB users for both their business and personal accounts
• Fraud mitigation, which will let customers determine suspicious check and ACH transactions, and seek reversals
• A dashboard with customized notifications, and tailored navigation within the app

The integrated platform deployment follows continued—though decelerating—mobile customer growth for the bank’s legacy offerings. Truist posted a 9% year-over-year (YoY) increase in active users during the quarter—defined as those who logged in within a 90-day window—going from 3.8 million in Q2 2020 to 4.1 million in the past quarter. By contrast, in Q1 2021 Truist revealed a 11% YoY increase and in Q4 2020, a 12% YoY increase. (Note: In its reporting through presentations, the bank measured its older comparisons through snapshots taken during specific months; later, it switched explicitly to quarters.)

Truist also offered a broader look at its integration timeline. It expects to spend nearly $4 billion on the tie-up through 2022—it’s already spent the bulk of it, with around $1.3 billion left—and disclosed that it wrapped up its wealth trust platform conversion in Q2 2021. Legacy BB&T customers will be moved over to a unified ecosystem before the end of this year, Rogers said, adding that the transition for legacy SunTrust customers will be made by Q1 2022.

The big takeaway: By going “live” with its unified platform on schedule, Truist is signaling that its in-house pilot has been a success. The banking giant’s decision to use a phased deployment also gives it more room for error and allows it time to fix any bugs that arise. Its choice of a conservative pace over mass deployment helps it scale the offering while limiting reputational risks in the event of glitches. As its mobile users increase, there’s even more at stake in Truist’s execution of this extensive migration. 

Note: This article was updated on August 4, 2021 to clarify that legacy SunTrust customers are slated to be moved to the unified ecosystem by Q1 2022.