Lloyds Banking Group has overhauled its lending infrastructure with the adoption of FICO’s cloud-based platform, enabling the bank to approve more customer applications and process over £7bn in loans annually.
The transformation, which replaces more than 20 on-premise systems, marks a major step in the bank’s digital strategy, as it seeks to scale lending services across its vast UK customer base, which includes one in two households.
By integrating real-time data ingestion and advanced decisioning tools, the FICO Platform has driven a significant uplift in performance. The overhaul has enabled over £7bn in annual lending, driven by a 2.5% uplift in credit card approvals and a twofold increase in new-to-bank loan customers.
More than 50 system issues have been resolved, and crucial bureau data upgrades that previously took months are now completed within weeks.
Lloyds’ overhaul of its legacy systems was driven by the need to remove bottlenecks and improve customer responsiveness across digital channels.
“It became clear that our lending infrastructure was becoming a barrier to the strategic growth ambitions of the bank,” said Ian Rockliffe, Head of Consumer Credit Risk Transformation at Lloyds. “We needed the ability to scale to meet our customers’ needs within the digital channels. We also needed to bring in new data assets to support growth, sustainability and enhance our responsible lending position.”
“Working with FICO we have been able to simplify the whole technology estate and implement a market-leading cloud-based infrastructure. This delivers major technology enhancements and other significant benefits,” he added. “We serve one out of every two households in the UK, and these changes help us say ‘yes’ to more customers.”
The project required a major data mapping effort to trace how data was handled across legacy systems, ensuring consistency and readiness across business units. This enabled seamless integration of new data workflows without disrupting downstream teams.
The move has already yielded strong results, particularly in loans, and credit cards are expected to follow suit. The modernised infrastructure has also brought credit card eligibility assessments in-house, providing Lloyds with further control over its lending processes.
“We are already seeing great results on loans due to the bureau data upgrade, and expect to see the same on cards,” Rockliffe said. “Our new lending infrastructure, with FICO Platform at its core, has allowed us to scale and adapt to deliver another key strategic delivery for the group.”
FICO’s software President, Nikhil Behl, praised Lloyds’ approach: “Not only has the new integration helped LBG to fundamentally change its technology, the Group has also adopted a truly agile approach when delivering technical and business change. Upgrades no longer take months or years, but can be completed within minutes and days, providing significant operational efficiencies.”
In recognition of the initiative, Lloyds was awarded the 2025 FICO Decision Award for Cloud Deployment. Judge Megha Kumar, research VP at IDC, noted: “Lloyds’ achievement goes far beyond a typical system upgrade — it’s a transformation that redefines what’s possible with cloud technology in banking.”
Moving forward, Lloyds Group plans to continue scaling the platform across its product range, with an emphasis on responsible, real-time lending decisions tailored to individual customer needs.
