Santander Bank has successfully moved its corporate investment banking business to the cloud as part of its effort to migrate all of its operations. 

The $1.9 trillion, Madrid-based bank created its cloud-native digital banking platform, Gravity, last year on Google Cloud’s platform, and plans to move more operations to the platform next year, a Santander Bank spokesperson told Bank Automation News.

The move, announced in a Dec. 11 release, gives Santander easy access to data, simplicity in operations and faster time-to-market for products, making it possible to deliver new capabilities for customers in hours instead of weeks, the spokesperson said. 

The Gravity platform will improve customer experience, provide real-time analytics and offer better cybersecurity measures, the spokesperson said.  

“The Gravity software allows parallel processing, meaning the bank can simultaneously run workloads on its existing core banking mainframe and in the cloud, allowing it to perform real-time testing with no disruption to its businesses,” the spokesperson said. 

Santander aims to move most of its operations to “the cloud by the end of 2024, finishing the remaining by 2025,” the spokesperson said. 

Klarna selects Adyen for merchant acquiring 

Swedish AI-driven payments provider Klarna selected Dutch fintech Adyen to simplify its merchant acquiring capabilities, according to a release from Adyen on Dec. 4 . 

The deal will allow Klarna to provide services to its 150 million customers and 500,000 merchants via Adyen’s network, the release stated. 

Adyen’s checkout solution can be utilized in three ways — pay-over-time, pay later or pay now — and works with an API and a single integration, an Adyen spokesperson told BAN. 

“Customers that want to implement Klarna or any other of our 250-plus payment methods into their checkout can make it as simple as a click-and-drag process for any of the markets where a specific payment method is available,” the spokesperson said. 

Pay-over-time will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom and other countries, pay later will be available in the U.K., Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark, the spokesperson said.  

Atom Bank, Funding Circle plan new lending program 

Durham, U.K.-based Atom Bank is teaming with Funding Circle to deploy $189 million in funding to small and medium-sized businesses in the U.K., according to a Nov. 23 release from Funding Circle. 

Atom Bank will benefit from Funding Circle’s technology and data-driven platform, “which simultaneously protects against risk while also offering an unrivaled customer experience for businesses, with lending decisions reached in as little as 9 seconds,” a Funding Circle spokesperson told BAN. 

The funding program comes when “wider macroeconomic conditions continue to prove challenging in the year ahead.” The funds will be used by businesses to manage finances and invest in growth, the spokesperson said. 

The bank and Funding Circle loaned $380 million to small businesses in 2021, according to an Atom release. 

Volksbank selects Worldline for card issuance 

Vienna-based Volksbank has selected global payments company Worldline for card issuance services, according to a release from Bezons, France-based Worldline on Nov. 27.  

Worldline will provide a single interface to Volksbank for card issuance, fraud detection, a cardholder portal and customer service, the release stated.  

Worldline’s platform provides custom-made payments solutions for financial institutions, Head of Financial Services Alessandro Baroni said in the release. 

Volksbank selected Worldline because of its “established international experience in both traditional and innovative payments,” Alberto Naef, general manager at Volksbank, said in the release. 

Shawbrook selects Pega for mortgage application processes 

Essex, U.K.-based Shawbrook Bank has tapped cloud-based fintech Pega to upgrade its mortgage lending process and cut processing time in half for customers, according to a release from Pega on Nov. 13. 

The $16.4 billion bank will use Pega’s data to automate the application process and to enhance human judgment on the application, a Shawbrook spokesperson told BAN. 

“In practice, this means developing our own websites and microservices to deliver great customer and broker experiences,” the spokesperson said. “It also relies on internal processes that need to be executed by colleagues.” 

Pega’s technology streamlines and automates internal processes, expediting the customer and broker experience by freeing up Shawbrook employees from routine tasks, the spokesperson said. 

 “This allows them to concentrate solely on their core responsibilities, ensuring they contribute maximum value to our objectives,” the spokesperson said. 

Visit Bank Automation News’ Transactions Database, which lists the technology selected or acquired by companies in the financial services industry, with a specific focus on technology that enhances automation.

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