Lunar

As a new player with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, Lunar wanted to establish a new, fresh bank differentiated from traditional banks in its banking products and solutions as well as image and design, using technology to change the way to think about and spend money. 

With a vision of being 100 % digital, Lunar wanted full control of their own bank, including product development and of their product offerings in the Nordic markets. This was not possible to achieve with the classic Nordic setup for smaller and medium sized banks in which the bank depends on the data centrals to launch new functionality across their customers. With this setup Lunar would lose control rather than gain it. 

Thus, Lunar envisioned a partner that would fit into the below overall criteria: 

• Extensive card experience 
• Technological maturity and well documented open API’s 
• Solid and future proof AMS platform 
• Location in the Nordics with onsite resources 
• PCI DSS certified service provider which minimizes Lunar´s PCI DSS scope and effort 
  

This led to Lunar engaging in a dialogue with Nets on how to achieve a 100 % digital bank that is supplier enabled to quickly adjust according to their customers’ needs and market trends. Nets could offer a solution which was a hybrid model where Lunar buys the full AMS platform from Nets (unmanaged) that is linked via Lunar to the core banking platform delivered by the bank central. All the services are fitted into Lunar’s product lifecycle, which lets Lunar stay in control of their own product suite and the timing of their product launches.

Lunar chose to partner with Nets to get an experienced partner who would be able to steer them through the process of card issuing, deliver a full product suite as a service, and engage with their partners to secure API integrations. Furthermore, Nets could provide economies of scale with mature technology and a strategic offset in investing in the latest technology and platforms. Finally, Lunar chose a partner who was geographically close to them in the Nordics and with onsite resources, enabling easy interaction in the implementation process and continued collaboration.

Furthermore, Nets are supporting Lunar with an end-to-end digital-first set of products and services, including:

Card processing services incl. Digital Lifecycle Management (virtual cards, Pin services, xPays (ApplePay, GooglePay)

Account management services with debit card

Fraud monitoring and prevention services

Dispute management services incl. decision tree

Electronic signature services

Card design

​The partnership ensures improved payment experiences for all Lunar private and business users in the Nordics (Sweden, Denmark and Norway). In addition, Nets provides electronic signature services and assist with card fraud and dispute management.

To reach a timeline of just 7 months from contract signature to AMS launch in production, a highly agile approach to implementation and functionality adjustments was followed. New functionality was deployed in a test environment for Lunar to test and provide feedback. The process is shown in below figure.

While new functionality was deployed in the test phase to get a head start in the implementation, discovery workshops took place in parallel for the parties to align on configuration, deployment timeline and backlog. The process was founded in SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework), which is Nets’ preferred implementation approach. Thus, Lunar were enabled to implement changes and adjust functionality according to their needs and learnings along with defining new epics to be deployed in upcoming iterations. This approach opens the opportunity for fast and continuous implementation of changes and adjustments while still securing a structured approach to approvals, which ultimately meant that the aggressive timeline was reached on budget.

The new solution, which was implemented in just 7 months, supports Lunar’s strategic ambition of being a 100% digital bank. Lunar can now customise their products and services to fit their target groups needs for innovative and modern products, while focusing on delivering personalised communication and customer service. 

Now, Lunar has an innovative state-of-the art banking app, which is easy and intuitive for their tech-savvy customers to use. In the backend, Lunar stays in control with a full product suite available on-demand as a service, managed by themselves, and only buying the products they need, thus saving costs on irrelevant services. This has meant shorter time-to-market by being able to quickly cater to their users’ changing demands.

Lunar’s users can now handle all their savings, payments, investments and more, in their digital banking app. Both when onboarding new customers and when Lunar introduces new products, all processes are automated to provide a great customer experience. Rather than filling out five pages of questionnaire, the user is faced with relevant and automated quesions, only when new services are activated. 

The end-to-end solution provides Lunar everything they need for current and future needs to accommodate their users’ changing demands and ensure great customer experiences, while still delivering security and stability.