Strategy
In collaboration with Engine, PwC helped AMP Bank establish an entirely new business division built around the innovative Engine by Starling software-as-a-service platform within a remarkable fifteen-month timeframe. This pioneering project is unprecedented in the banking sector and has introduced a new digital banking offering aimed at serving underserved customer segments, specifically everyday Australians and small businesses..
AMP Bank identified a strategic opportunity to launch a new digital banking offering to an underserved customer segment – everyday Australians and small businesses. To achieve this, the bank knew it needed to do things differently and build a new team with access to the latest banking technology.
PwC conducted a discovery programme and defined an innovative strategy for AMP Bank to stand up an entirely new business division, created around the new Engine by Starling software-as-a-service platform. The firm has worked with Starling Bank since its inception, and had recently helped spin off Engine as a standalone business, which meant PwC understood both the technology and the new ways of working it embodied. Not only would the platform provide the ideal solution for AMP, but deploying it in the Australian market would enable Engine to expand its global presence.
From the outset, PwC, Engine and AMP worked in partnership, with Engine as a collaborator rather than simply a technology supplier. Furthermore, PwC’s international team included consultants who had originally helped Starling launch its digital bank in the UK, ten years before.
While Engine provides a bank-in-a-box solution, the externalities vary, so the programme’s design team tailored the platform to meet the Australian market’s technical and business requirements, bringing in regulatory specialists to ensure that local compliance was integral to the solution’s design.
The programme team knew how to get the most from Engine, by taking an “adopt, don’t adapt” approach, not only to the technology, but also to its implicit operating model, including new roles and processes. AMP staff were therefore at the heart of developing the platform, while the bank’s operational teams could experience demonstrations and become familiar with new ways of working as each area of functionality was being built.
As a result, the transition was radically different from traditional banking implementations and, in just 12 months, the programme turned strategy into reality and put the new digital banking offering in the hands of its target customers. Key to this success was the programme team’s deep understanding of how to use the platform most effectively, as an engine of operational as well as technological transformation.
AMP’s digital bank was launched publicly in February 2025 – on time, on budget, and with both regulatory and open banking approvals. Its functionality includes transaction handling, security, payment rails and a highly-rated mobile app with 24/7 customer service. With 11,600 pre-release customers, AMP plans to onboard 24,000 personal and 58,000 business customers by the end of 2026.
This first-of-its-kind programme has benefited all three partners. AMP Bank is now in a position to revolutionise digital banking in Australia, while the programme represents a new milestone in the strategic relationship between PwC and Starling Bank. As a result, Engine has successfully entered the Australian market and created an important technology export for the UK economy, while PwC and Engine have created a joint implementation model that will be repeatable for clients in geographies all around the world.
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