The UK's Nationwide Building Society is to spend over £300m on revamping branches and improving Internet and telephone banking services over the next six years.
Under the initiative, all of the society's branches and agencies will be refurbished. In the first two years, 100 branches will undergo major refurbishments, while a further 85 branches and agencies will be upgraded.
Nationwide says it will also place more Internet terminals in branches to enable members to conduct transactions online and get help from staff. New appointment and call-management systems will be installed in branches and new technology will be rolled out across the society's call centres to speed up service. The company will also invest in staff training.
Earlier this year, Nationwide announced plans for a substantial investment in its UK call centre operations, in contrast to many of its competitors which are shifting work to overseas centres.
Commenting on the £600m investment, Philip Williamson, chief executive, Nationwide, says: "While others are taking their service proposition abroad, or encouraging people to use the Internet instead of branches, we are investing in high streets across the country and in our UK call centres.
"In addition, those who prefer to do business online will benefit from improvements to our Internet bank and from our plans to have Internet terminals in more branches."
Williams says the investment programme is designed to improve ease of access for customers, however they choose to do business.