OakNorth to sell loan underwriting tech to Asian incumbents

Singapore

OAKNORTH, a GIC-backed challenger bank from the United Kingdom, has set up shop in Singapore to sell its data-driven credit underwriting model to Asian financial incumbents.

The digital lender is in talks with several banking institutions from this region, and expects to ink partnerships with as many as eight Asian financial institutions by the end of this year, said Nikshep Shetty, director of growth and delivery at OakNorth Analytical Intelligence.

The underwriting model is the technology that brought OakNorth to a pre-tax profit of US$44 million in just three years of lending to British small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

OakNorth, which recently scooped up Softbank funding to be ranked among Europe's most valuable fintechs, has other credentials: In just three years, it has built a US$4 billion loan book on a lean team of fewer than 10 relationship …