Finastra and Singapore-based Marketnode announced on April 7–8, 2026 a strategic partnership to automate the credit agreement onboarding process for corporate lenders through Finastra’s Loan IQ platform, reducing deal setup time from approximately two hours to ten minutes. The integration connects Marketnode’s AI-powered document automation with Loan IQ’s Nexus Build module, hosted on Microsoft Azure, and is aimed at eliminating manual data entry and fragmented workflows that have long increased operational risk and cost across the syndicated and bilateral lending industry.
Key Facts At A Glance
- Announcement date: April 7–8, 2026, Singapore
- Partnership: Finastra and Marketnode, integrating Marketnode’s Smartflow technology with the Loan IQ Nexus Build module
- Reported processing time reduction: from approximately two hours to ten minutes for credit agreement onboarding
- Technology stack: large language models, optical character recognition, and machine learning to process structured and unstructured credit documentation
- Deployment options: on-premise and private cloud, currently configured on Microsoft Azure
- Finastra’s Loan IQ market position: processes approximately 75% of global syndicated loan volume; used by 21 of the 25 top global banks
- Marketnode ownership: a joint venture backed by SGX Group, Temasek, HSBC, and Euroclear, founded in 2021
A Persistent Problem In Corporate Lending
Credit agreement onboarding has been one of the most labor-intensive stages in the corporate lending lifecycle. When a syndicated or bilateral loan closes, lenders must extract key terms from lengthy and structurally varied legal documents, then manually enter that data into loan servicing systems before any deal can be activated. The process has historically required dedicated operations teams, introduced data accuracy risks, and created delays between transaction close and revenue recognition.
For banks running large lending books across multiple jurisdictions, including across Asia Pacific, the cumulative cost of this inefficiency is significant. Finastra, whose Loan IQ platform processes roughly 75% of global syndicated loan volume according to its own disclosures and partner materials, identified credit agreement onboarding as a priority area for automation through its open Loan IQ Nexus architecture.
What The Partnership Delivers
The collaboration brings together Marketnode’s Smartflow technology, which uses large language models, optical character recognition, and machine learning to interpret both structured and unstructured data within credit documentation, and Finastra’s Loan IQ Nexus Build module, which provides the API layer connecting document extraction outputs directly to deal setup workflows inside Loan IQ.
Under the integrated workflow, banks can upload a credit agreement, have the document automatically parsed for key data points, and have that data mapped into Loan IQ for deal setup without manual re-entry. According to the joint announcement, the combined solution can reduce processing time from approximately two hours to ten minutes per credit agreement. The solution supports both on-premise and private cloud deployment and is currently configured on Microsoft Azure, enabling real-time workflow integration, scalable AI and machine learning processing, and encrypted data exchange between Marketnode and Loan IQ.
Andrew Bateman, Executive Vice President of Lending at Finastra, stated the collaboration extends Loan IQ’s capabilities to help financial institutions reduce manual processes, improve data accuracy, and accelerate credit agreement onboarding, with the result being a faster path to revenue recognition and greater scalability for lenders worldwide. Rehan Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of Marketnode, described the partnership as addressing a pivotal shift in how financial institutions approach credit operations, enabling intelligent and resilient operations at scale across the end-to-end lifecycle from origination to distribution.
Marketnode’s Position In Asia Pacific Infrastructure
Marketnode was founded in 2021 as a joint venture between SGX Group and Temasek and operates as Asia Pacific’s digital market infrastructure provider. The firm has since attracted strategic investment from HSBC and Euroclear, and operates two flagship platforms: Gateway, focused on tokenization and fixed income digital issuance, and Fundnode, Singapore’s blockchain-based fund transaction infrastructure. The Finastra partnership extends Marketnode’s capabilities beyond capital markets infrastructure into the corporate lending operations layer, a segment it had not previously addressed directly.
The partnership announcement was made from Singapore and confirmed across Finastra’s official press release infrastructure as well as in reporting from regional fintech publications.
Implications For The Regional Lending Sector
Loan IQ is the dominant platform for syndicated and bilateral loan servicing across global banking, and its footprint in Asia Pacific includes major institutions managing complex cross-border lending books. By embedding AI-driven document automation directly into the Loan IQ Nexus ecosystem, the Finastra-Marketnode integration lowers the barrier for any Loan IQ customer globally, including banks operating across Southeast Asia, to automate a previously manual workflow without replacing their core lending system.
The partnership also reflects a broader shift in how regtech and lendtech vendors in Singapore are positioning AI-powered automation not as a standalone offering but as an integrated capability within established banking infrastructure. Publicly available information does not yet specify which banks are live on the combined solution or disclose commercial terms of the partnership.