Bank Australia chooses partner to ‘transform’ originations

Bank Australia has confirmed that Cloudcase Software Solutions (Cloudcase) will implement the customer-owned bank’s new platform for the onboarding and originations of mortgages, personal loans, credit cards and commercial loans.

The agreement will help forward Bank Australia’s enterprise-wide digitisation and transformation program. 

Bank Australia’s head of lending, Martyn Norman, said that the bank’s digital transformation program is important to provide its 185,000 customers with “the best and most efficient banking experience”.

“We’re excited to partner with Cloudcase to deliver this important next step in our digital transformation program,” Mr Norman said.

“These developments will continue to improve customer experience through a tailored digital experience that makes it easier to transact, self-serve and connect with our Bank Australia team.”

He added: “Across the tender process, Cloudcase demonstrated a system and plan that will be fit for purpose for Bank Australia. 

“We’re looking forward to working closely with them in delivering this on behalf of our customers.”

CEO of Cloudcase Roger Manu said the CSS platform aims to help Bank Australia continue to operate in the rapidly changing lending industry by making lending “simpler, faster, better”.

“In a very competitive sector, Cloudcase will ensure Bank Australia can continue to put their customers at the centre of the bank and have a positive impact on people and the planet by covering the digitisation and automation of all lending processes, including integration into Bank Australia’s core Data Action banking platform,” he said.

Bank Australia is the latest lender to overhaul its origination and banking systems, as consumers become more accustomed to online banking and expect a more seamless and efficient experience.

Earlier this year, BOQ Group migrated ME Bank customers onto the new core platform (Temenos v.18) for the digital bank as part of its ongoing digital transformation process.

BOQ Group — which includes retail banking brands BOQ, Virgin Money Australia (VMA), and ME Bank (which it acquired last year) — now provides digital transactions deposits to customers and revealed that it will have a digital mortgage for all brands in 2024–25.

Its phased approach to becoming a fully digital bank will be led by a new CEO after its former head, George Frazis, left the company last month.

The bank noted at the time that it had formed a view that “different leadership is now required to ensure BOQ can continue to build a stronger and more resilient bank through future cycles”.

Major lenders have also been on a transformation, with ANZ launching its new digital savings and financial wellbeing, ANZ Plus, which recently hit a milestone of $1 billion in deposits, Westpac and CBA launching a new digital mortgage, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) recently appointed a new group executive for technology and group chief information officer.

Given the focus on end-to-end lending, New Zealand-based origination, workflow and credit decisioning platform Credisense and SaaS banking and financial services platform Mambu recently announced they had collaborated to “fuse” their two tech platforms in order to produce a cloud-native solution for lenders.

[Related: Fintechs collaborate to streamline lending solutions for APAC lenders]