Bank of Queensland is joining the neobanking revolution, announcing it will launch a new digital bank this year under its Virgin Money Australia brand. The bank is launching the app-based bank in partnership with Deloitte Digital and Swiss-based banking software firm Temenos AG. Bank of Queensland currently offers financial products including home loans, superannuation, insurance under the Virgin Money Australia brand, under licence from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
“Virgin Money Australia is uniquely positioned to build on our existing relationships with more than 200,000 loyal customers and a home loan portfolio that has quickly grown to more than $3 billion to effectively compete in the Australian market with challenger and incumbent banks alike,” said Greg Boyle, Virgin Money Australia chief executive. “We are at the beginning of an exciting journey as we build an industry-leading digital bank that will be beautifully simple and rewarding.”
Virgin Money will be joining one of a growing number of neobanks that eschew physical branches in favour of app-based services. Up Bank was launched by Melbourne software firm Ferocia in partnership with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank in 2018 and last year Cuscal-backed 86 400, Xinja and Volt Bank launched.
Over 100 Deloitte professionals from across Australia and Europe will be working on Virgin Money Australia’s digital bank, said Deloitte Digital Banking partner Brad Milliken. “This includes the designers and technologists delivering the core banking platform and native mobile apps, the process engineers who are designing and implementing the back office, and our risk and regulatory experts.
Temenos will be providing the software as a service (SaaS) capability for the new bank, and will be rolling existing customers over to its cloud-based banking platform Temenos Transact. Virgin said the Temenos platform would provide it with “a single, upgradeable digital banking platform that will create a simplified digital business model.”
“We’ve seen great momentum in the Australian market from challenger banks to established institutions and we’re excited to continue working with financial institutions to challenge the status quo,” said Temenos chief executive Max Chuard.
(Australian Associated Press: Derek Rose)
