The boss of Barclays yesterday said new technology is ready to transform the experience of bank customers and help his British lender deliver almost half its planned annual cost savings of £1.7 billion.

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins said operations and technology improvements should deliver £800 million of savings in the next three years.

“This is now the time when we finally see technology creating a different sort of banking experience,” Jenkins said at a banking conference in New York, via webcast. New technology can allow banks to process transactions more efficiently and offer customers better access to services through mobile devices.

“There’s a massive opportunity to create a much better customer and client experience at structurally lower cost, with better control and quality.

“Our industry has been so far behind on this, because we’ve had 20 good years where revenues were growing all the time,” he said.

Jenkins is attempting to transform Barclays by shutting unprofitable areas, axing atleast 3,700 jobs and pruning its investment bank to rebuild the bank’s reputation and boost profitability after a series of scandals.

His plan, unveiled in February, aims to deliver £1.7 billion of annual savings by 2015.