UBL UK, a UK-regulated bank, has selected Aquila, the financial messaging platform developed by Aqua Global, to support a broad digital transformation programme aimed at achieving significant growth targets.
The Aquila deployment will overhaul UBL UK’s payments and reconciliation infrastructure as the bank transitions to Essence, an API-first core banking environment. The platform will replace manual, file-based Swift processes with API-driven connectivity, automated IBAN and BIC validation, and near real-time payment processing, bringing messaging, payments and reconciliation onto a unified, scalable system.
Beyond streamlining payments, the move is designed to reduce operational risk by cutting down on errors, missed cut-off times and associated penalties. It will also lay the groundwork for further customer experience improvements as the bank expands its digital banking capabilities. During the first year of operation, UBL UK will also benefit from Aqua’s Proactive Infrastructure Managed Service, which provides ongoing monitoring and support throughout the transition.
UBL UK, established in 2001, serves a broad customer base spanning personal banking, business banking, real estate lending, treasury and money transmission services, including international transfers.
UBL UK head of IT Sayful Ahmed said, “When we made the decision to move away from our current core banking solution to Essence, an API-first platform, modernising payments and reconciliation was a key part of the project.
“We process around 100,000 payments each year, so we needed infrastructure that could support us as we scale through greater automation, resilience and control. Having worked with Aqua for more than a decade, we did not need to look any further. Moving from E2Gen to Aquila was the natural choice.”
Ahmed added, ““Upgrading to ISO 20022 was a major undertaking and we leaned heavily on Aqua to help us through it. It made a huge difference knowing the team was always on hand to support us. Everyone we speak to at Aqua is very knowledgeable about the industry and knows the product inside out. Also, the proactive monitoring service gives us added confidence during a period of significant change. For a small bank, having that level of expertise and support behind us is incredibly valuable.”
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