Zerobank Design Factory to offer full-cloud banking system

By Leandra Monteiro

Zerobank Design Factory Co., Ltd. (ZDF), a subsidiary of Fukuoka Financial Group, has announced that it will begin offering a full-cloud banking system. The system is based on the core system that ZDF and Accenture developed for Minna Bank.

ZDF will provide this system to domestic and overseas financial institutions, as well as to non-financial businesses seeking to introduce new banking services. By promoting digital transformation in the global financial industry, Zerobank Design Factory aims to realize its mission to ‘Deliver valuable connections to everyone’.

The system will enable businesses to quickly build banking systems from scratch on the cloud, allowing them to rapidly expand financial services optimized for each customer. All services can be completed on a smartphone through an intuitive user interface that makes opening accounts, making deposits, transferring money, and applying for loans effortless. In addition, the system includes an analytics engine that allows the operator to visualize account processes such as deposits and withdrawals, interest accrual, and fees to better personalize offerings for each customer. These innovative digital services and new customer experiences will increase corporate value.

The system architecture ensures scalability, fault tolerance, and flexibility by using a public cloud. The applications built on top can be flexibly developed due to a design that includes loosely coupled microservices and API architecture. For smooth deployment, there are also related assets for efficient development and operation, including pipelines and asset management. In addition, the BaaS platform, an API integration system compliant with the FAPI international security standard, enables easy integration with API providers and partner businesses that are interested in creating new services.

Kenichi Nagayoshi, President and CEO, ZDF and Minna Bank, said, “Minna Bank, which opened in May 2021 as Japan’s first digital bank, has been extremely popular among the target digital native generation, with 1 million app downloads and 400,000 accounts opened in the first year. During this period, we continued to work with Accenture to expand our knowledge of the systems, functions, and designs required by digital banks and to update our technology accordingly. We are convinced that this full-cloud system is the solution to many of the challenges faced by companies seeking to enter the banking business. By sharing our successful experience with customers in a wide range of industries, we hope to contribute to the development of digital banking in Japan and abroad.”