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How to use BankOne with Lendsqr as a core banking

May 30, 2024

Eseose Animhiaga

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BankOne is one of Africa’s most popular core banking systems today, powered by Zone (formerly Appzone) as a product of Qore. It is a leading core banking software serving over 500 financial institutions in seven countries across Africa.

For over a decade, BankOne has become well known for helping smaller microfinance banks set up their core banking.

BankOne has a suite of channel services beyond the core, enabling financial institutions to deploy all other digital channels without separate integrations. The Qore Initiative maintains BankOne and delivers everything a lender needs to jumpstart financial inclusion projects: web applications, mobile apps, reports, and data management tools.

Why lenders need core banking systems

A core banking system (CBS) is essential for any lending operation, acting as the main database for all important information:

Account and customer balances: CBS accurately records where customers’ money is.
Loan product creation: This is where you set up and manage the different loan products you offer.
Central data hub: CBS acts as a central data hub, including all key operational data flow, transactions, and customer profiles.

If you’re a smaller lender, you might not require a dedicated core banking system. Lendsqr removes this need by providing all our lenders with a robust, shared core banking solution. See more problems Lendsqr is solving for lenders. Our platform allows lenders to integrate our channels (web, mobile, USSD, etc.) with the BankOne core banking system.

Why would a lender with BankOne need Lendsqr?

While BankOne is a robust banking-as-a-service platform, its loan origination and scoring capabilities are rudimentary compared with what a dedicated loan management system like Lendsqr offers. Some of these include:

Multiple credit bureaus: Lendsqr gives lenders access to multiple credit bureaus, allowing them to check borrower information from different sources. This helps improve the accuracy of credit decisions, which is something BankOne doesn’t offer.
Identity verification and liveness detection: Lendsqr also provides identity verification and liveness detection features to safeguard against identity fraudsters. Liveness can be pretty expensive, which is why Lendsqr developed its proprietary engine to offer lenders superior and cost-effective alternatives for these critical KYC requirements.
API-friendly environment: Lendsqr offers a developer-friendly platform called Adjutor. This platform includes useful APIs like the account verification API, which checks the authenticity of customer account details. Also, there are decisioning APIs such as Karma, Ecosystem data, and Risk Assessment Criteria (RAC) API, allowing customization of risk control parameters to suit your loan business needs.

Therefore, for banks and other MFIs that want to lend at scale, the decision to use Lendsqr as a loan management system and channels powered by BankOne is a smart one.

Got urgent needs? There is a lender for you.

Integrating BankOne with Lendsqr

Picking the right core banking system is a big deal for any lender. It’s the backbone of your operations, so changing it later can be a real hassle. Plus, there are plenty of other core banking systems out there. To make things easier, Lendsqr has integration adapters for popular systems including and especially BankOne.

Setting up a new core banking system usually takes six months or more. But with Lendsqr’s pre-built integration adapters, lenders using standard BankOne configurations can get everything up and running in just two weeks.

But here’s the tricky part: core banking systems like BankOne usually come at an enterprise level. This means you must have a valid and up-to-date license, and the BankOne team can only grant sign-up access after a stipulated fee has been paid. After completing these, your core banking back-office can be configured to the API module.

Some of the benefits of integrating a core banking system like BankOne with the Lendsqr loan management system include:

BankOne is integrated with NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP), an account-based, online, real-time Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) platform. It enables financial institutions to provide their customers with online real-time funds transfer services through all available electronic channels.
BankOne comes fully embedded with APIs and tools necessary for Financial Institutions to collaborate in the emerging Digital ecosystem.
BankOne offers an efficient option for financial institutions that want to operate at global technological levels while maintaining lean Engineering and IT departments and budgets.