For ever 30 years, SBS have supported mortgage and savings operations for banks and building societies in the UK. Throughout this time, the original origination and servicing engine has expanded to include a front-end consumer savings portal, a broker portal, and a mobile app offering.

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Many prominent software providers who have serviced customers for decades may be viewed as legacy, but SBS is anything but legacy.

At the fifth and latest instalment of the SBS Summit in October, SBS showcased advancements made to its technology globally, including its view of the use of AI in the future of banking software. After the event, Finextra noted that SBS had shaken off legacy label and had positioned itself at the forefront of fintech.

The UK market is a microcosm of the banking world, and in many ways, it forges its own way towards the future of the market. Thanks to long-term robust customer partnerships, SBS know that the market is looking for ways to go digital, but stay human.

Forward thinking

January 1, 2030 might seem like a long time away, but new regulations are creeping in fast. Basel 3.1 is expected to result in an increase of around 3% in capital requirements for major firms, including large building societies.

The regulation is designed to keep consumer’s money safer and result in fewer government bailouts or collapses of financial institutions. This regulation could mean that lenders may  save more of their money instead of giving it to shareholders, looking to raise money through investors, or lend less money out. Add in the reduced cash free allowance in ISAs from £20,000 to £12,000, which could potentially impact savings books, industry leaders will be looking for creative ways to save money in order to achieve this without impacting the customer experience and remaining competitive.

One way building societies and smaller banks can compete with these industry leaders is through digital transformation.  Understanding some of the real challenges UK organisations face, this is something that SBS has prioritised in its latest MSS7 product launch.

Now, we will look at just two forms of new functionality that SBS have made available to lead market innovations and helping organisations across the UK to modernise their operations.

Open banking

Banks, financial institutions, fintechs, and technical service providers have come together to build open banking ecosystems within a collaborative community to bring new products and services to the UK. With open banking payments, customers can authorise payments using their existing banking credentials, enabling direct transfers which reduce errors and result in faster transactions. These payments also reduce card processing fees, which result in cost savings for consumers and lenders alike.

According to an October 2025 FCA whitepaper, over 23 million one off payments were successfully processed using open banking earlier this year. The total number of active users was around 13.3 million. These transactions are modest in comparison to digital wallets and contactless cards, but open banking is showing steady growth.

Open banking payments are a compelling alternative for organisations like building societies who are keen to grow their savings books but are impacted by card fees associated with deposit transactions. With adoption growing from 1 in 17 in March 2021 to around 1 in 5 people and small businesses in the UK who are open banking active as of March 2025, organisations must act quickly to compete with this new trend that is quickly rising to the norm.

Product switch

Estimates from mid 2025 show that 1.6 million fixed term mortgages in the UK were due to expire by the end of the year.

Complex mortgage set ups, such as multiple sub-accounts with different rates or terms, previously were a burden for financial organisations to move to a new deal. The latest mortgage switch processes mean that consumers can experience a more seamless journey avoiding long waits, large costs and complex processes.

With brokers and consumers expecting the ability to perform product switch activities online, lenders are looking for solutions. Some existing SBS clients estimate that they have between 4 – 5 FTE allocated to manually process mortgage switches today. In addition to this, around 60% of their mortgage book have more than 2 sub accounts.

By implementing this product switch solution, lenders can expect to see a return of investment in the first year by increasing the speed at which mortgage switching operations take place, reduce customer churn, reallocate staff to tasks that provide a larger value, reduce human error, and save money by reducing manual processing.

Conclusion

SBS has supported UK clients for over 30 years, but this functionality is not that of a legacy provider. 25% of UK mortgages are currently serviced through an SBS platform and over 50% of UK building societies use SBS solutions to manage their mortgage and savings operations.

We’re not stopping here. The best is yet to come.

To learn more about these topics as well as how SBS is helping organisations to reduce customer onboarding operations, maintain regulatory compliance proactively, digitise branch operations, and more, please contact a member of our expert team at SBS.

Paul Walton, General Manager – UK Lending, SBS