Chris Williams has joined Nationwide as digital advice director.
Mr Williams joined the building society on Monday (1 February) from online investment adviser Wealth Horizon where he was founder and chief executive.
FTAdviser enquired whether his appointment means the lender is moving into robo-advice, to which a spokesman for the society said they were “not in a position to confirm anything” and added it was “part of wider digital strategy that we are doing”.
According to the spokesman for Nationwide, the building society is trying to offer better solutions for financial advice as a whole.
The organisation said in a statement: “Nationwide has continued to provide financial advice to its customers, even at a time when others withdrew their services.
“We firmly believe quality advice is an integral part of what a responsible financial services provider should be doing. This is why we continue to invest in our services to ensure we provide customers the most appropriate support they need for their financial circumstances.
“As part of this investment, we can confirm that Chris Williams was appointed as Nationwide’s digital advice director on 1 February 2016. Chris joined the society from Wealth Horizon where he was founder and CEO.
“Any further details on our services will be announced in due course.”
Nationwide isn’t the only provider looking at online advice.
In November last year, Fidelity stated that while it was officially looking for a programme manager to build a robo-advice service, the firm believed that there was an opportunity to develop a model which creates the next generation of portfolio management services.
At that time, a job advertisement on Fidelity’s website confirmed it was looking for a programme manager to lead “an exciting new business development” for the firm in the UK.
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
