SME specialist bank Judo has successfully migrated its lending business to a new cloud-native core banking platform built by banking-as-a-service (BaaS) software developer Thought Machine.

The vendor announced the successful migration, commenced nine months ago, of Judo’s lending business to its flagship Vault Core platform.

The new core lending platform will enable the neobank to scale and accelerate product development on its fast-growing SME loans portfolio, Judo noted in its recent FY24 results announcement. Judo’s loan book grew 20 per cent between FY23-24, hitting $10.7 billion at the end of June 2024, with bank counting than 4,300 SME borrowers.

The cloud-native core banking platform boasts considerable flexibility for users, offering a range of features including a full suite of in-built banking products including transaction accounts, savings, loans, mortgages, and credit cards, as well as support for buy-now-pay-later, wallets, offset mortgages and Islamic banking services.

Thought Machine writes on its website that the platform provides users with “unique flexibility and control in the design and build of new financial products by using smart contracts”.

The platform also enables simulations of product and smart contracts, a built-in software development kit, and an API-connected real-time ledger.

The platform also supports streamlined migration, with the ability to replicate a bank’s existing back book of products, including current and savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and mortgages.

With the migration now complete, Thought Machine confirmed that Judo can now pilot the new lending platform to new customers; existing customers will, it said, be migrated shortly afterwards to validate the system’s full capabilities.

David Palmer, Judo’s general manager of enterprise scale, said the platform would usher in a “new era of business banking – doubling down on our commitment to being the most trusted SME business bank in Australia, powered by modern technology and free from the constraints of legacy systems”.

“With Vault Core, we look forward to offering our customers tailored products and offerings backed by world-class core banking technology,” he added.

Among Thought Machine’s extensive client list include Tier 1 banks Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered Bank, and Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as Morgan Stanley, Bpifrance, and Together Money.

Founded in 2016, the Melbourne-based Judo specialises in banking and lending services for SMEs.

Its core lending business supports a wide range of capital solutions, including business lending products and term deposits.

Judo recieved its banking licence in 2019, and at the time made extensive use of Temenos’ core banking suite.

The neobank last year also confirmed a deal with Backbase to deploy its Engagement Banking Platform, uniting its customer onboarding, servicing, loyalty, and loan origination functions.