The document discusses how Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) will disrupt the banking industry by allowing fintech startups to launch new banking platforms quickly and easily. BaaS providers will offer full banking infrastructure as a service, including core banking software and networks. This will enable startups to focus on applications while infrastructure is handled by experts. Lessons from a BaaS project show that automation, security, and resilience will be key to future banking platforms. BaaS represents a fundamental change in how banking platforms are developed and delivered.

1. 1
Banking-­‐As-­‐A-­‐Service
(BaaS)
Will
Disrupt
Banking
Whether
Bankers
Like
It
Or
Not.
#FinTech
I have recently completed a Banking-As-A-Service (BaaS) infrastructure project for a large UK
Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is a glimpse of what banking technology, at least from the
network infrastructure point of view, will look like in the future. If you are a BaaS or Financial
Technology (FinTech) fan, this article is for you. I share 7 lessons gained from that project at the end
of this article.
BaaS
Will
Disrupt
Banking
Whether
Bankers
Like
It
Or
Not
Imagine, in a not so distant future, a new FinTech start-up wants to re-invent how we do banking. The
company has the banking expertise but lacks the knowledge required to build a complex application
delivery infrastructure that must be in place to deliver a fast, secure, and highly resilient online banking
system.
Not to worry. Welcome to the BaaS market place where BaaS providers rule. A place where you can
order your banking platform tailored to your customers' needs. A place where you can buy speed,
security, and resilience and run your core banking applications on a robust network infrastructure, fully
compliant, fully automated; ready to go at a push of an API button. This banking platform is delivered
as a service with the usual core banking frameworks and APIs, and you only Pay-As-You-Grow. You
can also extend the platform to support APIs allowing apps developers to create more banking services
that your customers will love. Happy days!
What
Makes
A
Banking
Infrastructure?
Without going into too many technical details, a banking platform can be segmented into 2 main
groups of components. One group includes components that are part of the core banking software.
These are programs or tools that perform several specialised banking functions such as customer and

2. 2
business processes management, banking transactions control, financial analysis and analytics, data
fraud prevention, documentation and account management, reporting, and business intelligence.
Another group of components include the middle-ware systems that are glued by the underlying
network or digital infrastructure. That digital infrastructure also called Application Delivery
Infrastructure (ADI) must be very fast, highly secure, and resilient. Here we only focus more on the
digital infrastructure behind BaaS.
Banking
Platforms
Made
Easy
With
BaaS
If you are a FinTech start-up trying to launch a bank it could be a daunting task building both the
software and network infrastructure required to create a complete banking platform. Don’t forget the
regulations and licenses that must be acquired to start offering services to customers. A tiny number of
providers in the UK are now able to take away the pain of building the complex digital infrastructure
that makes up a banking platform.
MSP providing a robust and flexible infrastructure to ensure that banking apps are delivered in a fast,
secure, and highly resilient manner.

3. 3
Fast,
Secure,
And
Resilient
Is
All
You
Need
For
BaaS
The Application Delivery Infrastructure (ADI) that is at the core of all banking platforms is based on
three core principles:
1) Speed – Faster is always good for consumers. The consumerization and proliferation of mobile
devices means that banking customers are expecting access to online banking services from anywhere,
anytime, and any device in a fast and timeless manner. It is unthinkable nowadays to be waiting for
more than a few seconds for a mobile or desktop app to load. Failure to ensure that the underlying
banking infrastructure used deliver web services is extremely fast simply means lots of complains and
ultimately loss of customers to the competition.
2) Security – Cyber security is also a major concern for consumers when it comes to online banking.
The increasing number of cyber attacks and data breaches in small and large corporations is only
contributing to the security hysteria amongst consumers. A major breach like the one that was
publicised at the Telecom company TalkTalk has resulted in a huge loss of customers and long-term
damage to the firm reputation. That must be avoided at all cost in a BaaS infrastructure.
3) Resilience – The ability to recover from a major banking component failure quickly must be part of
the BaaS design. It is crucial to ensure the highest uptime of all online banking services in order to
maintain and drive up customer satisfaction. The recent banking platform ‘glitch’ at RBS and Natwest
is a case in point.

4. 4
How
Fast
Can
You
Create
A
Bank?
BaaS brings the flexibility and agility required by FinTech start-ups to focus on their core banking
applications whilst the complex network infrastructure required to interconnect those banking
applications is taken care of by a third party provider. That includes ensuring compliance with strict
banking regulations such as PCI-DSS in order to meet the highest standard of security when handling
customers’ data. For a FinTech start-up that flexibility means speed to market and the agility to react
quickly to changing market dynamics.

5. 5
What
I
Learned
From
Building
The
Next
Generation
BaaS
Infrastructure
• 1) Network engineers must learn to program. The increased use of APIs in IT to streamline
processes and drive down IT cost means that the benefits of automation and orchestration are
far too important to be ignored by enterprises. Engineers with the combined expertise in
programming and networking will be in great demand in the near future.
• 2) IT Automation and orchestration will rewrite the rules on how we deliver complex
network infrastructures. Giving the cost saving attributed with automation and orchestration
trivial tasks will be taken care of by machines and certain types of tasks currently carried out
by humans will disappear.
• 3) Stronger cyber security is achieved when technology, humans, and processes are tightly
integrated and working as one.
• 4) Security analytics will play an essential part in helping companies manage and monitor
complex network infrastructures. It will also help to make sense of the exponentially
increasing number of security events and incidents that require detailed investigation.
• 5) Banking platforms as we know will change fundamentally. Similar to the adoption of
SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS, it makes sense to move towards BaaS. FinTech start-ups will benefit
greatly from BaaS by focusing on core banking services using APIs that conventional banks
may otherwise not be willing to offer.
• 6) Fast, secure, and resilient remains the motto for Application Delivery Infrastructures.
Whatever the banking platform, speed, security, and availability remain the highest concerns
for all stakeholders. All banking infrastructures must have all three.
• 7) Artificial Intelligence will help businesses reduce cost and offer better service to
consumers. Some of the mundane tasks currently carried out as part of the business-as-usual
(BAU) routines will be fully automated and carried out by machines or robots. Call it AI if
you will.
About
The
Author
Marco Essomba is a network & security expert with more than a decade of experience in the field.
Marco is CTO & CEO at AMPS Global, a World Class Consulting firm that enables organisations in
banking, healthcare, retail, finance, insurance, and technology to design, implement, and support
their digital infrastructure for the most secure and optimised delivery of Enterprise Apps. AMPS
Global core expertise is cyber security focusing uniquely on leading products such as Clearswift and
F5 Networks (BIG-IP LTM, GTM, APM, ASM, AFM, VIPRION, iRule, iApps, iControl, APIs,
DevOps, and Scripting). Projects and case studies available here.
Information on contacting Marco:
Twitter: @marcoessomba / Email: Marco.essomba@amps-global.com
Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amps-case-studies?trk=biz-brand-tree-co-name
Blog (Medium): https://medium.com/@marcoessomba
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/marcoessomba
Publications by Marco: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/author/posts#published?trk=mp-
reader-h
Other BaaS resources available at the Chris Skinner Blog.