Building a Greenfield Foundation for Digital Transformation

The partnership between Paragon Bank, a FTSE 250 specialist lender, and Mambu began in 2020, establishing a foundation of trust through the successful delivery of development finance and savings propositions. As Paragon’s savings portfolio grew, the need for a robust and reliable core banking engine became clear, leading the bank to choose Mambu as the partner for its next evolutionary step. This collaboration resulted in a greenfield transformation and the birth of “Spring,” a digital product designed to address a specific gap in the UK savings market.

Spring serves as the cornerstone of Paragon’s digital transformation, representing their first truly direct-to-consumer product with end-to-end digitization. By utilizing a greenfield approach, the bank was able to launch a new brand into a new market segment, informed heavily by customer insights. This ground-up build proved that the bank could rapidly innovate and deploy new services in a very short period of time by working in close partnership with Mambu and other key suppliers.

The development of Spring was driven by data from Paragon’s existing cohort of proactive savers. Research indicated that while consumers were interested in better rates, many were deterred by a perceived “baffle of choice” and the “perceived hassle” of moving money. Consequently, the primary objective for Spring was to create a hassle-free user experience. By focusing on a seamless customer journey and agile delivery, Spring has not only successfully gained market momentum but has also instilled greater organizational confidence in Paragon’s ability to execute large-scale digital transformations.

https://mambu.com/en/customer/paragon-bank?utm_campaign=Deposits&Savings&utm_source=FFNews&utm_medium=paid_media&utm_content=interview

Key Highlights from the Fintech Show:

• Foundation of Trust: Karishma Jaycee explains how the initial 2020 partnership on development finance built the capability for Paragon’s later digital expansion.

• Greenfield Transformation: The use of a new, cloud-native core banking engine allowed for the rapid launch of Spring as a standalone digital product.

• Solving for “Hassle”: Derek Sprawling notes that customer research identified “perceived hassle” as the biggest barrier to savings growth, which Spring was specifically designed to eliminate.

• Direct-to-Consumer Success: Imogen Gurney highlights Spring as the bank’s first front-to-back digitized product, proving their ability to build from the ground up.

• Agile Momentum: The project has established a new “rhythm” for agile change within the bank, propelling further digital innovation.

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