Santander UK to launch digital financing platform for SMEs
Santander UK in SME banking push
Santander UK says it is working on a project “to build an open digital financial services platform for SMEs”.
The project is part of four so-called “speedboats” – innovative ventures within the broader Santander group – announced by the banking group last autumn.
It is understood the technology for the platform will be supplied on a hosted basis by Mambu, which already has experience with the UK’s SME banks – OakNorth is its flagship customer in the UK.
FinTech Futures understands the system selection involved a number of hopefuls, Thought Machine and Temenos among them.
No comment was available from either Santander or Mambu on the bank’s choice of tech.
“We are excited by opportunity to help more SMEs to prosper and we look forward to sharing more about the platform soon,” Santander says.
Speedboats
The aforementioned innovation “speedboats” are global platforms based on a start-up model, led by independent CEOs and sponsored by Santander’s country heads.
They are:
- Super Digital – a digital account for the unbanked population in Latin America;
- Openbank – a digital challenger bank initially serving the Spanish market acting as a blueprint for a new IT architecture. The bank is now also moving into Argentina. Temenos is proving its T24 core banking solution for Openbank.
- One Pay FX – Santander’s blockchain-based international money transfer service, launched last month for retail customers in the UK, Spain, Brazil and Poland. The project is carried out together with blockchain tech provider Ripple.
- An open digital financial services platform for SMEs in the UK (see above).
