The Dutch fintech and outsourcing provider is aiming to challenge incumbents
February 1, 2017: Ohpen has gained approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out its regulated activities in the United Kingdom (UK). The approval enables Ohpen to provide its software and outsourcing services to asset managers, banks and insurance companies in the UK under its new British company, Ohpen Operations UK Ltd.
“The FCA authorisation allows us to deliver an alternative for financial services companies to digitalise and outsource their entire investments and savings accounts operations,” says Angelique Schouten, Ohpen UK’s CEO.
The company provides both incumbent financial services companies and new market entrants with a ‘bank-out-of-the-box’ solution to fully outsource their operations. Founded in Amsterdam in 2009, Ohpen currently services five of the largest financial services companies in the Netherlands, administrating billions of assets under administration. The move to the UK marks the company’s first overseas operation as part of its international expansion strategy.
“We made it our focus to innovate in the core banking space to enable asset managers, banks and insurance companies to outsource their entire IT infrastructure, software, back office operations and customer contact centre,” explains Schouten.
Drawing on their expertise as former retail bankers, the founding team redesigned all processes and built the service from scratch resulting in a ‘bank-out-of-the-box’ solution that is digital- and API-first.
Ohpen aims to present a fully-digital alternative to the market that is dominated by just a few providers traditionally designed around a paper-based customer experience.
“We are very excited that the FCA has granted Ohpen its full authorisation. I think it says a lot about Ohpen as a business, having gained its FCA authorisation within little over half a year of applying for it. We are poised to challenge the mostly inert core FinTech & outsourcing market with a fresh, innovative, bold and colourful alternative,” concludes Schouten.
The company was founded in Amsterdam in 2009 by former bankers. It delivers IT services and technology to outsource the back- and front-office operations of banks, asset managers and insurance companies. The offering combines fully cloud-based SaaS technology with BPO services that enables financial services companies to launch propositions, digitalise their services quickly and easily, and benefit from lower costs of a unique all-in-one pricing model.
Ohpen administrates hundreds of thousands of retail accounts and billions of euros in assets with a team of more than 70 domain experts across their offices in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It established its UK office close to the Silicon Roundabout in 2016, with plans to significantly expand the local team over the next two years.