OakNorth Bank heads to the cloud with Amazon
Rishi Khosla, OakNorth
OakNorth says it has become the “first cloud-based bank” in the UK, eight months after launching.
The bank, which provides loans of between £1 million to £15 million to “entrepreneurs and fast-growth” businesses, has been working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for six months on policies related to access to data, business continuity, as well as data protection and security provided by cloud systems.
OakNorth CEO and co-founder, Rishi Khosla, says: “Having our core banking system based in the cloud is an important milestone for us and for the banking industry in the UK. This achievement will enable us to continue scaling the business safely and efficiently.”
Since it began deposit taking and lending in September last year, OakNorth says it has lent over £120 million to a number of businesses and developers across a variety of sectors.
The bank was founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Khosla and Joel Perlman. It gained a full banking licence in March 2015. The board is chaired by Cyrus Ardalan, former vice-chairman of Barclays, and includes Lord (Adair) Turner, senior independent director, and Robert Burgess, non-executive director.
What’s the tech?
At the back-end, OakNorth’s operations are underpinned by the Mambu core banking system, supplied by a specialist vendor Mambu.
Banking Technology understands the bank was in conversation with digital banking software supplier Backbase for a front-end system, but the deal did not materialise. It is understood OakNorth uses a custom development for its digital ops.
OakNorth also featured in Banking Technology’s May 2016 issue. An excerpt from this “UK challenger banks: who’s who” article can be found online here.
