Shawbrook, the UK specialist bank, has teamed up with Thought Machine, the cloud-native banking technology company, to go live with Thought Machine’s core banking platform, Vault Core, in a move to accelerate product innovation in commercial SME lending.
Shawbrook plans to use Vault Core to scale up its commercial SME lending, introduce new features quickly, and increase automation across back-end processes. With hundreds of ready-made products built on smart contracts, the bank will be able to independently develop highly personalised products for a diverse range of customers, including individuals, businesses, and property professionals, and to iterate services quickly as market dynamics evolve.
Shawbrook began its partnership with Thought Machine in September 2024, selecting Vault Core as its core banking platform to enable rapid innovation and improve agility. Building on this foundation, Shawbrook launched its first new product, a buy-to-let mortgage, on Vault Core in May 2025.
The bank now leverages Vault Core’s configurable, real-time platform to accelerate product development, enhance operational efficiency, and respond more swiftly to market needs—all while maintaining stability and continuity.
“The flexibility and real-time capabilities of Vault Core have allowed us to move at pace, launching our latest buy-to-let offering swiftly and confidently,” explained Arthur Leung, CTO of Shawbrook. “It’s a platform that supports our ambition to innovate and adapt, enabling greater automation and powering future growth across areas like commercial SME lending – all while staying focused on the evolving needs of our customers.”
‘A strategic leap forward’
Louise Bird, commercial product officer at Shawbrook, also added: “Launching on Vault Core in under nine months is not just a technical achievement, it’s a strategic leap forward. We’re proving that banks can move fast, scale smartly, and still build with precision. This marks a major milestone in our journey to replatform Shawbrook around a modern, scalable architecture that empowers our teams and transforms the way we serve customers. It’s a bold statement of what the future of specialist banking can look like.”
Delivered as a single, globally consistent platform configured for each bank, Vault Core’s flexible and modular design supports all types of banks – retail, private, SME, and corporate. It is already in production with some of the world’s most prestigious banks and fintechs, including Standard Chartered, Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Banking Group, and many others globally.
Paul Taylor, founder and CEO of Thought Machine, commented: “The banking industry is undergoing a monumental shift, moving away from rigid legacy infrastructure toward a cloud-native future. At Thought Machine, our mission is to power the world’s most ambitious banks and fintechs with elegant, simple-to-use, and highly scalable technology. Vault Core eliminates unnecessary complexity, ensuring new business and product changes become straightforward and quick to implement. Vault Core’s capabilities will empower Shawbrook to redefine what modern commercial banking looks like in the UK, and we are proud to partner with them on this journey.”
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