The Intermediary – August 2025 - Flipbook - Page 29
T H E I N T E RV I E W
SBS
As it stands, “nothing is missing” to
implement these systems, which can provide
a net positive for both the lender and the
consumer. Bierry explains: “If you have two or
three years’ experience with the client, plus
their profile, some evidence of events that
might trigger something, you can run your
model and find that there is an 80% chance
they are going to face a problem in three
months. Then, the person taking care of the
client can make the decision to engage with
and assist them.
“That client is going to be more loyal longterm, and if you explain that usage to clients,
no one is going to think it’s dangerous.
Everyone benefits – the risk to the bank is
reduced and the client feels well-served.”
This will become easier with younger
generations, who arguably are less focused on
the theoretical risk, and have already proven
more willing to engage with systems like Open
Banking. Indeed, the next generation will likely
move elsewhere if the use of tech does not fit
their standards.
To help bring others on the journey who
might still be reluctant, Bierry says: “It’s the
responsibility of the financial institutions to
clearly publish the way they are using the data
of their client. They are more or less already
obliged to do that. Then, engage with some use
cases and be super transparent.”
The future
Despite being cautious to engage in too much
prophesying, Bierry paints an interesting
picture of the future. In five years, he says, the
next generation may go through the mortgage
process having never engaged with someone
from the bank.
“They don’t want a mortgage, they want a
house,” he says. “In their minds, why should
they talk to someone? They will consider it a
waste of time to talk to a third-party, even if it’s
the source of the finance.”
Meanwhile, banks need volume to be
sustainable, and considering the current
trajectory of issues like the cost of living and
house prices, they will be looking to maintain
that volume in an environment when buyer
numbers are slowing down.
Bierry points to other markets in which
finance has become an embedded concept,
where the institution providing it does not
factor in for many consumers – buying an
iPhone via monthly payments, for example.
Meanwhile, he adds that in China, the ‘super
app’ WeChat (Weixin) already acts as one of the
biggest auto finance competitors – it has the
customer’s financial data, due to already being
used as a payment app, so can make instant
credit decisions.
“In five years, for cars, I’m convinced we’ll
never see the name of the company putting
up the money,” he says. “If we can do that with
cars at £100,000, then why not a house at £1m?
No matter what some consumers who prefer
face-to-face want, the market will move.”
While the ability to walk into a car dealership
for a test drive and leave an hour later with
finance and the car might feel like an extreme
example, given the rate of progress in the UK’s
mortgage market, this is a reality that lenders
must take into account.
The other huge topic on the horizon is that of
the carbon footprint. For a tech company, SBS’
focus on something so deeply grounded in the
physical world might seem like a disconnect,
but for anyone following the news around
the environmental impact of AI servers, this
subject looms large.
In five years, Bierry believes, the regulators
will want a CO2 footprint label included on
all software. He adds: “The way we design the
products is influencing the consumption of
carbon emissions.
“So, we started to train our people in the
engineering and [research and development
(R&D)] teams on eco-design five years ago.
“We did this to reduce our hyperscaler
consumption. The reason to start with was not
ESG, but reducing costs.
“Since then, the trends – and the
expectations from the board and stock
exchange – have drastically changed. Now, that
eco-design is becoming mandatory.”
While this has been part of SBS’ DNA for a
while, Bierry says there are still questions. For
example, the business must consider how to
balance the fact that AI consumption is “bigger
than the product itself.”
While preparing for the customer of the
future, changing market dynamics and the
predicted role of regulation and carbon
footprint reporting, Bierry says SBS is excited
for its own product and innovation roadmap,
deleveraging its debt, and moving toward
another potential acquisition in 2026 to
achieve an ambitious revenue target of £1bn
for 74Software (which includes both SBS and
Axway) by 2028.
Bierry concludes: “We think that the next
step is that building societies shouldn’t be
taking up their time over processing platforms
and originations.
“What’s going to be exciting for us is to give
them an answer to those challenges.” ●
August 2025 | The Intermediary
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