NATWEST BOXED
Engineering for speed and resilience The migration reflects a wider engineering principle at NatWest Boxed: speed must be built on resilient architecture rather than pursued at its expense. For Asif, the main challenge is in the strategy:“ The fundamental challenge in my role is moving at relentless start-up speed while maintaining tier-one bank availability and regulatory protection,” he says.
Banking features rarely sit within a single technology area. Even a small change may involve the ledger, API orchestration, customer service and financial crime controls. If teams cannot make changes independently, the need to coordinate across multiple domains can slow delivery. In light of this, NatWest Boxed has responded by giving engineering teams ownership of specific micro-domains.
Each domain operates within strict data and API contracts, defining how it communicates with the rest of the platform. Those boundaries allow one team to develop its area without requiring every other team to retest the entire platform. The architecture is cloud-native and API first which follows continuous integration and deployment principles. Continuous integration means small code changes are regularly combined and tested, while continuous deployment automates the release of approved changes.
“ We believe that having a resilient platform is the foundation for innovation,” Asif says.“ The key here is enabling teams to own those micro domains and making sure that all of the resilience and
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