Launching a customer-centric, digital-only bank in under 9 months
Nearform plays an instrumental role in building Nomo, a pioneering Islamic bank
Imagine being unable to bank the way you wanted to — being away from home but encountering unexpected restrictions and challenges while on holiday, or studying abroad. This was the reality that Kuwaiti citizens faced.
To change this, Boubyan Bank Group created Nomo, a digital-only bank that enables people to manage their money easily and in compliance with Sharia law, two things they hadn't been able to do together before. Customers receive a personalised mobile experience, spend their money across currencies, access investment opportunities and more. But for this idea to become a reality, Nomo first had to be built — from scratch.
Nearform was key in taking Nomo from a lofty idea to a globally renowned bank, by playing an instrumental role in building its digital applications. We provided Nomo with robust, flexible and scalable technology that’s crucial to the outstanding experience provided to its customers today, tomorrow and long into the future.
An opportunity to change a banking reality in Kuwait
People in Kuwait were unable to bank abroad as they could at home. They couldn’t manage their investments while outside of the country, make frictionless payments while on holiday, or send money to their children studying in another country — while also maintaining accordance with Sharia law.
Kuwait Islamic banks couldn’t meet people’s banking requirements because they were, in the words of Adel Al-Majed, Vice-Chairman & CEO of Boubyan Bank Group, “behind the global digital curve in terms of the digital products and services being offered to customers.”
Boubyan Bank saw an opportunity to create a new reality for its customers by building the world’s first completely digital, international Islamic bank. It would be a mobile-first, customer-centric banking platform made for people with global lifestyles. It would use smart, simple and secure technology to allow them to manage their money with ease. It would give them an exceptional customer experience.
So began the journey to turn talk into action by building a brand new bank named Nomo.
Nearform is handpicked to form an elite team of innovators tasked with making history
The Nomo digital banking applications had to be built from the ground up. This type of effort required not only best-in-class digital engineering, but also the business acumen needed to understand the strategic implications of the necessary technical decisions.
Based on “years of research and studies of the needs of various segments of customers in Kuwait and the region,” the team behind Nomo chose London as the base from which to build the bank. Nomo would be launched as a brand name of Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) — Boubyan Bank is the majority shareholder of BLME.
They enlisted the help of technical experts from across the world to turn their vision into reality. Nearform was handpicked to be a crucial part of this elite team because of our commitment to engineering excellence, speed and quality of software delivery, world-leading technical experts and ability to work as “one team”. Wearing our “one team” badge, we would partner with Nomo and our peers from third-party vendors to make history in a matter of months.
Creating a customer-centric banking experience with scalability and flexibility
Onboarding was one of the key customer-facing elements of the Nomo application Nearform worked on. Nearform, alongside our peers, did the full range of work on the solution — frontend and backend.
The solution we built allows people to create an account by uploading their passport, scanning their face and following some other simple steps. Within minutes, they have two active accounts and can make transactions immediately. This user-centric, mobile-first onboarding set Nomo apart from its competitors, many of whom required customers to visit a physical branch to create an account.
Payments were another crucial part of Nomo’s solution that Nearform brought our expertise to. Working as part of a mixed team, we integrated Nomo with a cloud-native banking platform. We did so by building a wrapper around the platform, with this integration ensuring the security and scalability of the transaction element of Nomo. It means customers continue to enjoy safe, speedy and seamless payments as Nomo grows.
Nearform took the lead on key initiatives, with one of our experts leading a Nomo team responsible for getting the security clearance for the mobile banking application. We also innovated by implementing serverless infrastructure to drive a number of the backend services of the bank, giving Nomo greater scalability, more flexibility, a faster time to market and more.
Laying the foundation and capability for future innovation and enduring impact
One of the crucial tasks Nearform fulfilled was to assemble the digital backbone of Nomo by building the backend of its banking applications. Nearform’s backend engineering built a foundation that enables Nomo to continue expanding its offering.
By creating a robust, secure and scalable solution, one that safely stores and manages customer data, we laid a foundation that means Nomo’s banking application is future-ready — the company can leverage new and emerging technologies with ease.
This future-proofing positioned Nomo to then enhance its customer experience through AI-powered hyper-personalisation. Using advanced data analytics and AI, Nomo gives its customers insights and suggestions based on their spending habits, and offers automated budgeting tools. In addition to this, Nomo uses AI-driven chatbots to provide instant customer support around the clock.
Nearform also provided expert support in key areas of the project to embed engineering best practices in Nomo’s teams, including DevOps and penetration testing, to build internal capabilities for long-term proficiencies. This gave Nomo both the exceptional software foundation and culture of excellence needed for delivering future innovation and enduring impact.
Rapidly launching “the best bank”
The Nomo digital bank launched less than nine months after Nearform commenced work on the project, with an app and a virtual Mastercard credit card.
Nomo received over 2,000 account applications within 24 hours of going live, with that number increasing to more than 4,000 after 48 hours. Nomo made a big impression in the banking community, with its pioneering customer-first, digital-only approach in stark contrast to the outdated experience offered by many legacy enterprises. As an example, it was not until 2022 that one of the UK’s largest high-street banks launched a fee-free multi-currency account for its native customers.
Customers were initially able to spend in GBP and USD, with the list of currencies later expanded to include EUR, KWD, AED and SAR. Alongside fee-free multi-currency spending, customers have access to UK-based savings accounts, investment opportunities, international transfers and more. Customers are so impressed by the experience they get from Nomo that they have described it as: “The best bank, easy and fast and really gives me any service at any time.”
Our impact
Creating a pioneering customer experience
Nearform was integral to building an onboarding system that allows customers to create an account in minutes, an experience that set Nomo apart from its competitors. To put this into perspective, many European banking customers wait days, even weeks, to open a new account.
Building the backbone of a world-first digital bank
Nearform played an instrumental role in building the backend of Nomo’s digital bank. This backbone provided Nomo with the foundation to continue innovating its customer experience. It means people in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates can now use an international bank that meets their ever-evolving expectations.
Future-proofing Nomo with serverless infrastructure
Nearform implemented serverless architecture. This positioned Nomo for long-term success by giving its applications scalability, flexibility and a faster time to market for new features.
Our capabilities
ENGINEERING
Backend engineering
Frontend engineering
Customer experience
Serverless infrastructure
DevOps
Insight, imagination and expertly engineered solutions to accelerate and sustain progress.
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