As it expands its AI-led commercial banking model globally, UK-based OakNorth is increasingly relying on its India-based global capability centre as a core engine for product development, credit intelligence and enterprise innovation. By focusing on artificial intelligence, the London-headquartered bank has built a £5.3 billion loan portfolio, placing it among the top 1 % of commercial banks worldwide. Backed by SoftBank and last valued at $2.8 billion in 2019, the firm provides debt finance and savings products to lower mid-market businesses through its ON Credit Intelligence Suite, a data-driven platform that enables faster loan underwriting.
When OakNorth was founded, it aimed to address a clear gap: mid-sized businesses were underserved by traditional banks. Today, its India centres play a direct role in rewriting parts of its global banking playbook. Local teams work on core banking systems, credit underwriting workflows, data platforms and product architecture that power the lending engine. India now hosts two-thirds of the company’s workforce, including several senior leaders driving global AI initiatives.
“We have always aimed to develop multiple things at the same time. We experiment with new ideas, fail fast where needed, and double down on what works so that we always have a ready pipeline of things to work upon,” said Praveen Agrawal, Co-Head, India at OakNorth. He noted that while India’s GCC journey began as a cost-optimisation model, it has evolved into a knowledge-driven ecosystem. “While we started off more as a cost-optimisation tool. But over the last decade or so, things have moved more onto the knowledge economy and more skillset driven…and India has that hunger. People want to build, they want to try new things, they don’t want to just execute what is given. That mindset makes a big difference,” he said.
AI is embedded across workflows, from data pipelines to credit analytics, directly influencing loan assessment speed and risk evaluation. However, Agrawal cautioned against “pilot paralysis” and stressed that AI adoption must move beyond experimentation. He added that AI will reshape roles, replacing some repetitive tasks while creating new responsibilities. “India today has the opportunity to build for the world and for itself at the same time… You have a large domestic market, strong regulatory evolution, and global clients. That combination is rare,” he said, calling this moment a turning point for India’s globally integrated GCC ecosystem.
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