SMBC invests $30m in OakNorth

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has purchased shares worth $30m shares in OakNorth Holdings Limited.

OakNorth provides debt finance to SMEs, property developers and investors, and has recently branched into fund finance.  

SMBC is part of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG).

In addition to the investment, OakNorth has partnered with SMBC to launch its credit intelligence software.

The partnership provides SMBC with superior insight into its commercial loan book and borrowers in the US and Asia, as well as drivinge process automation and efficiency for portfolio monitoring.

OakNorth’s software combines credit, datasets and auto-analysis capabilities with cloud-computing and machine learning to create an efficient borrowing solution. The credit and monitoring tool is informed by industry benchmarks, peer analysis and scenario analysis to improve the quality, consistency and speed of commercial lending decision-making.

Toru Nakashima, group CFO and CSO at SMBC commented, “Through this investment and the upcoming partnership with OakNorth, SMBC strives to create new added value by bringing a high level of sophistication to its corporate lending platforms. We are further harnessing the power of AI through big data and machine learning across our strategic markets in SouthEast Asia, such as Indonesia.”