London-based digital bank OakNorth is betting big on the U.S.  

OakNorth expects to double its U.S. origination volume this year after originating roughly $3.2 billion in loans since entering the U.S. market in 2023, Chief Lending Officer Ben Barbanel told FinAi News.

The neobank is targeting around $3 billion in U.S. originations this year, up from $1.5 billion in 2025, Barbanel said. Real estate, small- and medium- sized businesses, self-storage and hotels are the top categories where the lender is seeing demand.

“Traditional banks exhibit the same behaviors in the U.S. as they do in the U.K. — risk-on one day, risk-off the next,” Barbanel said. “We’ve brought a more consistent, deal-by-deal underwriting approach, and that’s resonating” with businesses, which agree to th

e higher-than-bank-rate loans OakNorth provides. 

U.S. operations 

OakNorth has applied for a U.S. banking charter, which it expects to receive in the second quarter, Barbanel said, noting when that happens the bank expects operations to grow significantly. 

The digital bank acquired Birmingham, Mich.-based Community Unity Bank for an undisclosed amount in March 2025, subject to regulatory approval, and has plans to expand its operations into Texas in the coming months. The majority of its U.S. originations are concentrated in the Northeast, Barbanel said. 

The AI center of excellence 

AI and automation tools are core to OakNorth’s scaling strategy, Barbanel said. The digital bank is therefore developing its tech infrastructure to support its expansion with an AI center of excellence. 

The company opened the center earlier this month with a team tasked with developing use cases for AI proofs of concept and deployment. 

OakNorth has 25 employees in its AI center of excellence, spread across the U.K., U.S. and India, Barbanel said, adding that the company has more than 500 employees across Gurugram and Bengaluru in India. They span functions including: 

• Credit analysis and portfolio monitoring to product development;  

• Data science; and  

• Transaction execution. 

“The team is focused on embedding AI into everyday workflows — less as a replacement for human decision-making and more as a force multiplier for productivity,” he said.  

One of OakNorth’s key initiatives is using AI to analyze years of credit committee discussions — transcripts, recordings and decision logs — to identify recurring themes in how senior decision-makers evaluate risk, Barbanel said. 

“We’re looking at the exact questions our senior leaders consistently ask in credit committees and feeding that back into how deals are underwritten from the start,” he said. “It’s about creating a smarter feedback loop.” 

Other AI applications include:  

• Automating credit memo generation;  

• Summarizing large datasets; and  

• Identifying new origination opportunities. 

The company uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT models for internal use, and is exploring other AI tools for internal usage, he said. 

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