NatWest Boxed is NatWest's embedded finance division, born out of a 2022 strategic partnership with Vodeno Group. The joint venture combined Vodeno's cloud-based BaaS technology platform with NatWest's banking infrastructure and UK banking licenses, creating a vehicle for non-financial brands to white-label regulated banking products under their own brand.
In an interview with Computer Weekly, division head Andrew Ellis shared details on where things stand.
Five customers live, three still unannounced
The BaaS platform went live in July and now serves five customers. Two are public: the AA for lending and savings (EFR), and Saga for savings products targeting the over-50s market (EFR). Three large customers remain unannounced. Ellis also mentioned they're running a pilot with a small fintech to test how scalable the offering could be for smaller partners.
Product roadmap: point-of-sale lending next
The product suite currently covers unsecured lending and savings, with point-of-sale lending expected this year. That's a significant product expansion and opens up interesting opportunities beyond their current customer base.
Team and operations
NatWest Boxed runs with an 800-person team, around 300 of whom are in tech roles, split between the UK and Poland. The same team supports both the BaaS customers and Mettle, NatWest's digital SME bank.
Ellis was candid about what enabled early customer acquisition. Large brands won't trust you with millions of customers until you prove yourself, he said, but NatWest's existing institutional relationships gave them a head start that a fintech starting from scratch wouldn't have.
The AA and Saga deals put NatWest Boxed in an interesting position. These aren't niche pilots but established brands with large, older customer bases who might be more comfortable seeing a familiar high-street bank behind the product. Whether that "legacy bank trust" advantage holds as competition intensifies is worth watching.
