AI native bank
An AI-native bank is a bank that designs its operating processes around artificial intelligence, with people responsible for control and governance. AI agents can work across connected systems to carry out defined steps, such as checking information or preparing a document. The operating model therefore concerns how banking work is organized, beyond the introduction of a customer chatbot.
Banks using this approach need to define which actions software may take and which require approval by a person. Permissions and documented decisions make the automation reviewable within the bank's control processes. Banking licenses and supervisory responsibilities remain part of the institution's operating framework when processes are automated.
AI-native and AI-enabled
The banking software vendor Backbase describes AI-native banking as an operating model in which AI is the foundation of how the bank runs. Most banks, in its view, are AI-enabled: a chatbot on the website and a fraud model in one channel, each working in isolation.
Bain sets targets for an AI-native bank: ten times the productivity, a 90 percent shorter time to market and 80 to 90 percent of processes running without manual steps. Bain cites NatWest as an example, which cut the time from idea to live marketing campaign from more than 60 days to one. Bain puts deterministic systems such as the ledger, payments and entitlements underneath the agents: the agent chooses which tool to call, and the tool behaves the same way every time.
Solaris and Customers Bank
Solaris, the Berlin embedded finance provider with a full German banking license, announced its transformation into what it calls Europe's first AI-native bank. AI agents are to handle operational processes while people keep responsibility for control and governance, and end-to-end processes are redesigned to meet regulatory requirements. Solaris names the EU AI Act and DORA as its regulatory frame. The majority shareholder of Solaris is the Japanese SBI Group, and Solaris names its partners ADAC and Boerse Stuttgart Group as focus areas for AI-driven financial services. The banking-as-a-service customers of Solaris keep the existing APIs.
In the United States, Customers Bank works with OpenAI on lending, deposits and payments and calls this a step toward becoming one of the first AI-native regional banks in the country.
What the model asks of a bank
An agent that opens an account or releases a payment does work that a bank employee used to sign off. BaFin principles for algorithms ask for clear responsibility for each model, and DORA treats every model provider as an ICT third party. Bain expects smaller, flatter teams, with product and engineering roles merging, and more oversight work as the volume of automated decisions grows.
The AI agent governance page covers owners and limits for agents, and the core banking page covers the systems underneath.
Upcoming AI and finance events in Germany
What is an AI-native bank?
An AI-native bank is a bank whose operations run on AI agents by design, while people set the rules and remain accountable. The opposite is a bank that adds AI tools to processes built for people.
Which bank calls itself Europe's first AI-native bank?
Solaris in Berlin, which holds a full German banking license, announced its transformation into what it calls Europe's first AI-native bank.
What is an AI-native company?
An AI-native company builds its products and processes around AI from the start, so that AI does work other firms give to staff or older software. For a bank, this means organizing banking operations around AI agents.
AI-native banks and Finance Loop
Finance Loop brings core banking teams and AI developers together to compare how far a bank can hand its processes to agents. Finance Loop covers AI-native banking in its Payments & Digital Money and Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty tracks. Banks and vendors can host an event with Finance Loop or present in a sponsored webinar, and practitioners join through the membership.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.