Judo Bank Modernizes SME Banking with Thought Machine on AWS
Learn how this Australian SME-focused bank transformed its core banking capabilities using AWS and Thought Machine to improve performance and operational efficiencies in a competitive financial sector.
Benefits
Zero downtime
due to infrastructure since implementing its core banking platform on AWSUp to 4x faster
API response speeds for digital banking servicesSame-day resolution
for majority of operational issues resolved without delaysOverview
In the competitive landscape of Australian banking, Judo Bank applies the 'Judo Strategy'—using agility and nimbleness to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) seize growth opportunities. As a relationship-driven bank, Judo Bank prioritizes customer trust and innovation by providing personalized services to its customers, positioning itself as a challenger to traditional banks.
To maintain its edge and scale operations for future growth, Judo Bank worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and AWS Partner Thought Machine to modernize its core banking platform. Within 12 months, the bank completed its migration to a fully serverless, event-driven architecture, eliminating downtime, cutting transaction processing times, and the capability to resolve issues in the same day. These improvements have fortified the bank’s position as a trusted partner for SMEs, enabling faster product launches and operational efficiency.
About Judo Bank
Judo Bank boldly backs business. Our purpose is simple: to be the most trusted SME business bank in Australia. As Australia’s only challenger bank purpose-built for small and medium businesses, we exist to help you secure the lending you need and the service you deserve to support and grow your business. Our relationship model places a priority on highly skilled, knowledgeable and imaginative relationship bankers who take the time to get to know you and your business. We work with you to provide banking expertise based on deep understanding of your business’s opportunities and potential.
Opportunity | Modernizing core banking for agility and growth
Judo Bank’s mission to provide personalized banking services to small business customers required a core system that could evolve with its customer-first philosophy. Its initial system, while critical in supporting early growth, limited innovation with lengthy six-month product configuration cycles, and slow issue resolution as a result of reliance on external vendors.
In 2023, Judo Bank launched a strategic transformation of its core banking capabilities, cementing its strength in customer relationships and product innovation. With plans to expand its loan book to $15-20 billion, the bank needed a robust, scalable system to support rapid growth while maintaining operational reliability and flexibility. This transformation aimed to reduce product delivery timelines and strengthen control over core operations, and uphold the bank’s high service standards.
About Thought Machine
Thought Machine has developed the foundations of modern banking with its cloud-native core banking and payments technology. Its cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core, is trusted by leading banks and financial institutions worldwide. Vault Core and Vault Payments have been written from scratch as entirely cloud-native technologies, giving banks full control to run any bank, product, and payment set to flourish in a rapidly changing world. Thought Machine is a global team spread across offices in London, New York, Singapore, and Sydney and has raised more than $500m in funding.
Solution | Delivering reliability and agility using AWS
Judo Bank embarked on its core banking modernization with clear goals: improving operational agility, enhancing system reliability, and providing seamless customer experiences. Working with AWS and AWS Partner Thought Machine, the bank has achieved zero downtime, reduced transaction processing speeds from 4-8 seconds to just 1 second, and improved issue resolution from over 2 weeks to a single day.
To support its event driven architecture and domain driven API strategy, the bank leveraged AWS Lambda, a serverless compute service that automates code to run without provisioning or managing servers. This transition to a serverless model for business banking significantly reduced operational overhead and delivered long-term cost savings, freeing up resources to invest in customer and banker focused innovations.
Judo Bank also implemented Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), a managed database service that automates administrative tasks such as backups, configuration, and patching. With this integration, the bank simplified database management, delivering consistent performance and high availability across operations.
For secure and scalable data management, Judo Bank utilized Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an object storage service known for its durability and security. As a result, the bank can now provide unified datasets, facilitating reliable access to critical data for its digital banking services.
To enhance network connectivity, Judo Bank used AWS Transit Gateway, a scalable cloud router, to integrate Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (Amazon VPC) through a centralized hub. The bank now has greater control and flexibility in developing and modifying banking products while maintaining secure networking across its services and AWS accounts.
Judo Bank worked with AWS Professional Services to design and implement its upgraded platform on an AWS Landing Zone architecture. With this infrastructure, the bank launched 14 new banking domain services that enhanced operational agility and security, marking a key step in its transformation.
Judo Bank demonstrated the platform's effectiveness by piloting three business lending products in just nine months. Building on this momentum, the bank completed its core banking migration for its lending customers in 12 months. This is faster than the typical 18-month timeline for Thought Machine's Vault platform implementations. Through this efficient migration, Judo Bank could launch new services more promptly while maintaining service continuity for customers.
Outcome | Delivering speed and reliability for continued customer success
The bank now serves its customers through its new core banking platform implemented by Thought Machine. Judo Bank has successfully moved lending accounts to the new system, and expects to complete the migration of term deposit accounts in 2025. These achievements underscore the bank's commitment to innovation and relationship-driven banking, equipping it with the tools to meet evolving customer needs.
Looking ahead, Judo Bank plans to expand its product offerings and investigate integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its operations with AWS. Early proof-of-concept projects include AI-driven tools for automated call summaries. Additional initiatives will help bankers synthesize voice notes and input into credit memos to streamline operations.
"Our partnership with Thought Machine and AWS gave us the flexibility to build a fully serverless, event-driven platform that transformed how we serve SMEs. With the migration completed in just 12 months, we've improved reliability, reduced costs, and accelerated product delivery. This allows us to focus on what matters most: being a trusted partner for our customers," said Lawrence Hunt, Head of Engineering & Architecture, Judo Bank.
Our partnership with Thought Machine and AWS gave us the flexibility to build a fully serverless, event-driven platform that transformed how we serve SMEs. With the migration completed in just 12 months, we've improved reliability, reduced costs, and accelerated product delivery. This allows us to focus on what matters most: being a trusted partner for our customers."
Lawrence Hunt
Head of Engineering & Architecture, Judo BankLearn More
AWS Services Used
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