Fintech platform developer Vacuumlabs has partnered with Afin Bank, a new digital bank providing financial services and savings to Africans living and working in the UK, to support its operations and customer-facing mobile digital banking application.
Vacuumlabs revealed it is developing a technology platform, built with Thought Machine’s Vault, to integrate multiple services from the fintech ecosystem into a mobile application that provides an intuitive user experience designed specifically for Afin Bank customers.
Afin Bank, which was granted a banking licence authorisation with restrictions last week, plans to launch in 2025 to offer mortgages to Africans and other foreign nationals in the UK. This is an under-served group of borrowers who can struggle to get mortgages because of their visa status or lack of UK credit history.
“Our choice of Vacuumlabs as a partner has enabled us to accelerate the build and launch of Afin Bank. Vacuumlabs’ expertise with Thought Machine Vault, its experience with multiple fintech services providers and its understanding of financial services customer experience has been invaluable,” explained Jason Oakley, CEO of Afin Bank. “The level of collaboration is superb. Vacuumlabs is more than a partner, it is part of the Afin Bank team and continues to go above and beyond to ensure we are successful.”
Vacuumlabs has provided an agile team of product designers, architects, software engineers, cloud infrastructure engineers and data engineers who combine their technology expertise with deep knowledge of digital banking, fintech and Thought Machine.
A technological approach
“Working with Vacuumlabs we have accelerated Afin Bank’s software development lifecycle, which enables rapid iteration and continuous deployment with a robust, scalable infrastructure. This means we will be responsive to our customers’ changing needs,” added Monica Velasquez, CTO at Afin Bank.
Tomas Masek, CEO of Vacuumlabs, also said: “It’s been a privilege to collaborate on delivering Afin Bank’s vision and we are excited that the technology approach taken will ensure that Afin Bank will be able to rapidly build and launch new innovative products and services for its customers as it grows.”
Afin Bank will initially offer residential and buy-to-let mortgages to Africans living in England and Wales, as well as buy-to-let mortgages for Africans based in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia overseas who are looking to invest in the UK property market.
Afin Bank will also offer a range of FSCS-protected savings products to savers with UK passports and people from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gambia residents in the UK.
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