ALBA Bank has stepped up its launch preparations by signing a deal with a US technology firm aimed at speeding up the lending process.
The fledgling lender, which is backed by Scottish industrialist Jim McColl, has teamed up with nCino, a “pioneer” in cloud banking for the financial services industry.
The partnership will see Alba adopt the nCino cloud banking platform, which the bank said will ensure it has a streamlined end-to-end lending process, from loan application to fund disbursement. It added that, as Alba grows and evolves, the platform will offer a “scalable, cutting-edge lending framework” for small to medium-sized enterprises, which complements its commitment to providing quick lending decisions.
READ MORE: Alba: Ambitious Scottish bank gears up to open its doors
Alba is poised to become the first new bank to open in Scotland since Edinburgh’s Hampden & Co launched in 2015. It was authorised to move into mobilisation in March after securing a licence from city regulators, allowing it to move into a crucial ramp-up phase during which it has been seeking investment, embedding IT systems and controls, putting policies and procedures in place, building up its teams, and finalising its product offering.
Alba, which will specialise in lending to the SME sector in Scotland, said integrating its core banking engine with nCino will enable the submission of loan applications, monitoring of progress, and the digital sharing of loan decisions, noting that this will help reduce the time from application to review by its team of underwriters for approval.
With full regulatory approval pending, the bank added that the nCino technology will help to ensure that it is technically and operationally ready to begin lending on day one.
Asked when Alba expects to officially open its doors, a spokesperson said: “Alba Bank is on course to exit mobilisation within the 12 month allotted period, as per the official Bank of England process. We’ve made good progress building out our team, operations and infrastructure and we’re aiming to start trading without restrictions early next year.”
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Andrew Lewis, chief risk officer for Alba Bank said: “To build Alba, we partnered with the very best technology providers in their fields to offer our customers a first-class banking experience. Partnering with nCino underlines this approach.
“nCino’s highly regarded cloud banking platform will support our end-to-end lending needs, helping our expert underwriters to make quicker lending decisions for our customers, and allowing us to scale with speed and agility as we introduce more products and build our customer base.”
Charlie McIver, managing director at nCino for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said: "We’re proud to partner with Alba Bank in their endeavour to revolutionise SME banking.
“Our technology is robust and adaptable, designed to support both emerging banks like Alba, and large established incumbents seeking to innovate and modernise. We’re excited to be on this journey with Alba as they scale and work to fulfil their mission.”
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