AMP shifts core banking platform to cloud

According to AMP Bank (AMP), the decision to migrate to the cloud – which is hosted by Amazon Web Services – will provide “new levels of flexibility and scalability” to ultimately better service its customers, brokers and financial advisers. 

These “new levels”, according to the bank, include faster customer response times, which are said to also encompass loan application approval, and “robust security”. 

However, the bank also said that this step reflected its strategy to “grow its retail banking business”, to become a more customer-focused bank, and that this is one part of a multi-year “technology transformation strategy”. 

In 2020, AMP “modernised” its core system in 2020, which involved increased automation for credit decisioning and the opening of deposit accounts. 

According to internal stats supplied by AMP, this resulted in a 35 per cent improvement in productivity.

Speaking of the development, AMP Bank group executive Sean O'Malley said: “We’re investing to grow AMP Bank by delivering products that meet the needs of our customers, brokers, and advisers, and by using technology to make it easier to bank with us.”

In this year alone, AMP Bank has introduced digital signatures for loan applications, and confirmed that it will launch a digital mortgage for retail customers during the current quarter of 2022, while also introducing new online verification and valuation services. 

“The transition of our core banking platform to the cloud provides us with a platform to grow our business and meet the increasing expectations customers have around digital sophistication in their interactions with their bank,” Mr O'Malley said. 

Mr O'Malley later added that the cloud also “enables greater flexibility in the way AMP Bank interacts with the banking ecosystem, providing more opportunities for product and service innovation”. 

The move echoed previous comments made by the bank’s chief executive Alexis George, who identified digitalisation as one opportunity to advance AMP. 

Speaking to Mortgage Business, Ms George said there was a “real opportunity to grow the bank” through both the broker sector and continued digital interactions with clients. 

“There’s still a really competitive market out there, I acknowledge that. But I think there’s an opportunity for us there, and I think the broker space will be a big part of that,” Ms George said.

However, the move also reflected a wider trend in the lending space of both digital lending and end-to-end processing. 

Last month, Commonwealth Bank confirmed it had partnered with the cloud banking platform Mambu as a means to expand its digital home loan Unloan, which itself was launched in May.  

The following week, Beyond Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank both confirmed they had previously established partnerships with fintechs as a means to automate and streamline its loan processing.  

This urgency towards digitalisation and speed has previously been pinpointed by industry figures as the next frontier for lending. 

Speaking at a press conference last month, Nano Digital Home Loans co-founder and CEO Andrew Walker said speed is the new battleground for lenders. 

“Customers want more. They can do everything online and COVID-19 has exacerbated that digital trend,” Mr Walker said. 

“And it’s quite clear now that speed is the battleground.” 

Mr Walker later elaborated that this new battlefield will be customer experience and “speed in time of process as a proxy for cost”.

[Related: AMP boosts digital footprint in bid to slim turnarounds]