Police Bank is continuing with its whole-of-bank transformation, onboarding new partners to build loan origination and other financial capabilities.
The member-owned mutual bank is currently undergoing a total revamp of its technology stack, replacing its core banking system and moving to Temenos T24 to modernise its systems for the digital era.
It comes under a wider whole-of-bank transformation that have been underway since around 2020, covering Police Bank and its subsidiaries – Border Bank, Bank of Heritage Isle and Chelsea Wealth.
More recently, this past July saw the bank enter into a deal with digital banking services and implementation partner Xpert Digital (XD).
Xpert Digital is implementing a loan origination system within the Temenos Infinity framework, to enable straight-through processing of mortgage financing.
Police Bank CEO Greg McKenna told iTnews that shifting its core “meant that we also needed [to upgrade] other services” including mobile banking app, internet banking, onboarding and loan origination – “all the things you’d expect as a bank customer to be delivered.”
“We looked around the universe of offers. We knew because of our relationship with Temenos they had a digital [banking] platform called Infinity, and we’re only a relatively small shop in terms of the number of people we’ve got in our project team and in our IP team.
“We thought Infinity was going to be a fantastic platform. But we knew we’d need help from an implementation partner, that can get us to the line in the timeframe that we thought was reasonable”.
Having been recommended by Deloitte and with approval from main partner Temenos, McKenna said Xpert Digital “is a company that we can work with”.
Xpert Digital comes with an “accelerator framework” and experience that Police Bank intends to utilise.
Police Bank chief information officer Lyndall Bushell added the bank needed a partner “both now and into the future” to meet changing customer needs.
“What we get out of working with the Infinity stack, as we refer to it, on top of our Temenos core, is really a set of digital capabilities that enable us to deliver key use cases for customers.
Bushell said “having a partner and then a solution that stitches neatly into the Temenos [corer] product is really important because that helps us drive quite a lot more seamless experiences” as more customers “desire for an omnichannel experience”.
“For me, it’s a very large step forward in terms of our technical capability and therefore our digital offering that we make available to our members,” Bushell said.
“What they’ll experience, it will be elegant and simple, but quite a lot more sophisticated than what they have today, and a real focus for us is around secure platforms that are stable and deliver those core functions of a banking app really well.”
Bushell added the bank is transitioning away from paper-based processes as much as possible and is freeing up time across its lender and contact centre teams.
Xpert Digital has been given access to the codebase for Infinity as it is the implementation partner and will help configure plus connect to Temenos, said Bushell
“What we’re doing from an implementation point of view is pretty sophisticated, and there are many players involved in helping us get there.
“We certainly have internal teams to help us configure environments and set up connectivity, but we very much work with partners as well, so Temenos themselves as well as Xpert Digital working on the Infinity product and some other partners as well.”
According to Bushell, Police Bank is “looking to go live with our core banking solution in the middle of 2024.”
“On this transformation journey, something like 70 to 80 percent of the technology within Police Bank will change from a member point of view, which is quite material,” Bushell said.
“We’re also changing how our staff interact and conduct their processes from an operational point of view and a member care point of view and therefore all of the usual change management activity that would need to go along with that [is needed].
“That’s an absolute priority, so we are changing a lot and we really have the whole business involved in helping us make that successful along with those partners.”
Transformational thinking
Bushell commenced her role at the end of July, coming from former neobank 86 400.
She said she was “surprised at the similarities” compared to working with Police Bank.
“It’s quite fast-paced. We make decisions pretty quickly, the environment’s quite dynamic. We have that kind of scarcity mindset around things, which really helps you move through unsolved problems.
“It’s always about getting the most out of what we can do and using the team to best effect and really working with what you’ve got. I think that always drives better outcomes.
“That creativity and curiosity that you get when there’s only just enough people is actually really powerful in making change.”
McKenna added “this was by design” to an extent, following meeting former 86400 CEO and founder, Robert Bell in 2018.
“We’ve made a real commitment – myself, the board and the executive team – at Police Bank to ensure that we’ve got the culture … where people are comfortable, to speak up.”
McKenna also said “the overall business transformation is well-entrenched and I think the foundation for the growth that the digital transformation is going to offer us has been put in place. So whether it’s financial, whether it’s culture, whether it’s. risk management and risk culture transformation, they’re all well bedded down,”
“Then the technology piece is the piece that will really let us leverage those human assets and excellent service … so I’m really comfortable.”
He said the organisation had “a good financial year in FY23” with the bank experiencing no capital expenses “hangover” as it moved into a new year.
“The balance sheet is in good shape. The business is in good shape and everyone’s excited about what the technological transformation and the new digital assets will be able to deliver for members and for the growth prospects of the bank.”