GFT and Thought Machine launch BankLite cloud-based banking solution

By Leandra Monteiro

The global IT services and software engineering firm GFT and cloud native core banking company Thought Machine today announced the availability of BankLite. Co-developed by the two companies and running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), BankLite enables users to create and deploy a cloud-based digital bank faster than before.

BankLite is a fully modular system designed around Vault, Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking engine, using AWS’s native cloud services and hosted on the AWS infrastructure. This allows banks to create modern, highly flexible end-to-end solutions by bringing forth the required capabilities to support a multiple-entity, multi-brand, multi-country strategy. Leveraging an integration layer with microservices utilising the AWS API gateway, its architecture of pluggable components works together as one.

Steve Hoy, Director of Partnerships at Thought Machine said, “Established financial institutions and start-ups are struggling with the limitations of legacy technology. There is now an urgent need to invest in modern core banking technology enabling superior customer service capabilities, reducing complex technology environments, all the while achieving optimum operational efficiency. This is where BankLite, incorporating Vault, our cloud-native core banking solution comes into its own. The increasing number of enquiries we are receiving for this type of solution is a clear indication of the industry’s growing appetite for change. We are confident this new offering has a significant part to play in enabling many more financial institutions to rapidly achieve their digital transformation goals.”

Gonzalo Ruiz de Villa, Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer at GFT observed, “BankLite incorporates Digital Bank Launcher, GFT’S new cloud-native asset which has been developed to enable the modern core banking providers to supercharge the capabilities of their solutions.” He went on to explain that DBL comprises all the building blocks necessary to deliver digital channels, as well as the banking platform to support integrations with external service providers and the fintech ecosystem.”

He went on to add, “DBL provides dynamic scalability and ensures consistent quality and security across the full banking stack, from the core banking system to the digital channels and the integration with third parties. It is built using latest collaborative methods and technologies to ensure that all the teams across the business, from UX and design to DevOps and operations, can operate within a transparent, fully cooperative environment. An API-based experience and a Banking-as-a-Service layer provide a seamless experience across third party services, products, and custom-made software.”

Using Banklite’s new solution, architecture and infrastructure which includes GFT’s DBL accelerator, banking companies can get a ‘lite’ bank functional in under twelve weeks. This method will give users the opportunity to quickly implement different brands across multiple geographies. The banking solution can also be tailored to suit country-specific business and regulatory requirements as well as supporting local products and regional partners.

Manuel Lavin, Executive Director and Chief Digital Officer at GFT said, “The launch of BankLite is the culmination of the knowledge and experience we have acquired over many years in helping financial institutions to successfully build custom, end-to-end virtual banks. Using a proven and scalable architecture, we have consistently demonstrated the ability to enable clients to reduce time to market, minimise project risks and control operational and development expenditure. The multi-disciplined BankLite development team has delivered a capability which enables financial firms globally to build a new virtual bank quickly and efficiently from scratch or extend an existing legacy core banking system at a much lower price point. We are looking forward to helping our shared clients reap the benefits of this innovative new offering.”