Ohpen, the first fintech platform to bring a bank to the cloud, today announces its partnership with ezbob, a UK-based software provider for banks and financial institutions.
The partnership is the next step in Ohpen’s expansion into the UK market, which commenced last year with the launch of a complete mortgage platform, and will leverage ezbob’s local market expertise to provide end-to-end SME lending products, as well as continuing to support consumer lending.
A recent report from the Federation of Small Businesses shows that SME lending requires urgent attention. It cites the latest Bank of England figures that show how the annual growth rate of lending to SMEs is at a record low, but lending to big corporates has increased significantly since the start of the year. This highlights the need for financial institutions to be able to offer lending products that meet the unique requirements of the UK’s small businesses, of which there are over 5.5 million.
Ohpen’s cloud-native core banking engine supports this need, further bolstered by ezbob’s intuitive onboarding and immediate credit decisioning expertise for SME loan origination. Through this collaboration, financial and non-financial institutions can deploy highly configurable solutions, cost-effectively in as little as 90 days, including ongoing loan servicing. This is substantially faster than alternative options, such as in-house development.
The solution is packaged as a cutting-edge, AI based SaaS deployment with pre-configured APIs for KYC, fraud, AML, bureau and open banking providers. This means that no customer technical knowledge or expertise is required.
Jan-Lamber Voortman, Managing Director of Lending at Ohpen, commented: “It has been a core focus of Ohpen’s to ensure we offer UK financial institutions the full spectrum of lending products. With ezbob’s expertise in the origination of SME loans and our depth of experience in lifecycle management – from origination to servicing and arrears – we have created a powerhouse of a partnership. What’s more, having already worked on proof-of-concepts together, we know that our teams, skills and technology complement one another perfectly. I look forward to using our joint expertise to truly help UK banks and lenders better serve the growing SME market.”
“SME borrowers demand the same slick customer experience they are used to when ordering services from Netflix or Amazon. ezbob’s technology delivers a smart, intuitive onboarding and credit assessment journey with a decision in minutes. Integrated with Ohpen’s cloud-native servicing platform, cash can be dispatched same day, thus offering a highly valued customer service to small businesses,” added Marc Philippo, Vice President Sales at ezbob. “Partnering with Ohpen enhances our offering and allows us to cover all aspects of the loan cycle; achieving this truly fully integrated service is unique in the market. We’re excited to provide better servicing for financial institutions and their SME customers and to tap into the potential of supporting non-financial firms wishing to embed financial services into customer offering.”
