UK high street bank NatWest has teamed up with European software vendor Vodeno Group to launch a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) business for the UK market.
The partnership will aim to bring together NatWest's banking licence and technology with Vodeno's cloud-based technology platform to target UK businesses and banks.
NatWest already has a business banking app, Mettle, with a payments and core banking capability. The Vodeno Group meanwhile comprises the Polish software arm Vodeno and Belgium-based Aion Bank, which is licensed for a number of banking activities.
The new venture will be majority-owned by NatWest which will have an 82% share with Vodeno holding the remaining 18%. NatWest will also commit £120m to get the project up and running.
“This strategic partnership presents a strong potential source of fee income in a growing market, and an opportunity to deliver sustainable growth by building deeper relationships with our corporate customers," said NatWest group executive Alison Rose. "It also complements our existing investment in the development of business banking technology within our Mettle business.”
The BaaS sector has grown rapidly in recent months as more businesses and banks look to third party platforms on which to devleop their digital services.
A survey produced earlier this year by Finastra found that 85% of banking executives are already implementing or plan to implement BaaS within the next 12 months.
Finextra has recently launched the inaugural Financial Cloud Summit, scheduled to take place on 2 March 2023. For more information and to register for this event, please visit the event page here.