The five year contract which was signed in June, strengthens BT's existing relationship with Nationwide, building on an outsourced contract to provide networked IT services that was awarded to BT in 2008.

BT will provide Nationwide with a range of services including Managed Security Monitoring Services (to monitor and protect the network), security firewalls and managed email and web access. Together these services will transform the building society's existing bespoke security infrastructure to a fully managed service.

Peter Stafford, IT Director at Nationwide, said: "Nationwide is seeking to introduce standard security services across its business, to reduce costs and to improve business agility. BT was chosen because it demonstrated a complete understanding of the security architecture needed to ensure delivery of these objectives".

Andy Nicholson, president, global banking and financial markets, BT, said: "Like many organisations in the fiercely competitive UK financial services market, Nationwide is looking to improve its business agility and remain focused on its core activities. Outsourcing security presents a key area of opportunity and as BT is the market leader in providing enterprise security solutions, we are a perfect fit for Nationwide."

Ray Stanton, Executive Global Head of business continuity, security and governance, BT Global Services, said: "Our existing security services and BT Counterpane threat monitoring services were the starting point for introducing wider depth and standard security services to Nationwide. BT Counterpane now forms the backbone of our overall value add service offering to Nationwide, bringing together analysis and reporting across a range of different services and technologies to help Nationwide mitigate further its risk profile and improve overall service and cost."