OakNorth Bank: Core Banking in the Cloud
Abstract
Celent Model Bank Award: OakNorth Bank: Core Banking in the Cloud
Winner of Celent Model Bank 2017 Award for Banking in the Cloud. OakNorth Bank is a UK-based challenger bank and is the first bank in Europe known to have hosted their core banking system (CBS) platform entirely in a public cloud. By using AWS to host a CBS platform provided by Mambu, OakNorth Bank has been able to simplify the operational aspects and streamline the IT staffing requirements of running the bank.
OakNorth believes that its use of a cloud-based CBS platform has had a dramatically positive impact on its strategic position as a SME lender that responds quickly and flexibly to the exacting needs of its clients. The speed that OakNorth has been able to grow its core SME lending business combined with the operational agility that its IT environment offers has allowed OakNorth to achieve an initial break-even for the business within a year of launch – itself an achievement given the nature of banking as a volume business with high fixed costs.
As one of the very first examples in the world of a fully regulated full-service bank running its IT services entirely in a public cloud, OakNorth Bank is a trailblazer in demonstrating the practical benefits and strategic advantages offered by cloud-based banking services.
OakNorth Bank has leveraged its progressive approach to IT services in focusing its efforts on customer-facing products and services rather than back-office operations and support.
OakNorth Bank's success to date in scaling its businesses seamlessly through the AWS public cloud will embolden other banks to take the leap towards agility and flexibility in IT service provisioning.