Engineering Manager - AI Platform

Thought Machine and AWS launch AI tool to accelerate legacy core banking migrations. Thought Machine and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have launched a joint AI-powered migration solution designed to automate the transition from legacy mainframe systems to cloud-native core banking. By converting COBOL code into modern Python-based financial products, the partnership aims to drastically reduce the time, risk, and cost associated with traditional bank modernisation projects. What was announced. The new solution integrates AWS Transform's mainframe reverse engineering tools with Thought Machine's Vault Forge, an AI-driven tooling suite. The primary objective is to allow major national and global financial institutions to reimagine millions of lines of legacy code - specifically COBOL - into tested financial products within a secure cloud sandbox. Unlike traditional migration methods that translate code line-by-line, this pipeline extracts the underlying business intent within the customer's secure environment. The process is divided into four distinct stages: Extraction, Consolidation, Synthesis, and Validation. First, AWS Transform performs discovery on legacy applications to extract logic into Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (EARS) specifications. These are then consolidated to remove redundant product variations. In the synthesis phase, Vault Forge uses AI agents via Amazon Bedrock to generate SDK-compliant Python code for financial products, including interest calculations, fee schedules, and repayment workflows. Finally, a "Human-in-the-Loop" review gate ensures bank staff can sign off on the logic before deployment to a Vault platform sandbox. To facilitate adoption, Thought Machine is also introducing a Core Modernisation Accelerator programme. This initiative provides banks with access to technical architects, product specialists, and engineers to manage the governance and architecture setup. The solution operates entirely within the bank's existing AWS environment, ensuring data security while accelerating multi-year programmes into significantly shorter timeframes, potentially compressing processes that usually take years into days. "We built Thought Machine on a single, uncompromising mission: to properly and permanently free the world's banks of legacy technology. Our partnership with AWS marks a massive leap forward in fulfilling that promise. By combining AWS Transform directly with Vault Forge, we are fundamentally rewriting the economics of core modernisation. For the first time, banks can deploy AI to rapidly convert complex legacy mainframe specifications into simulation-tested, cloud-native financial products. This gives large financial institutions the execution speed, audit rigor, and confidence required to eliminate technical debt and complete their cloud transition." The companies involved. Thought Machine is a cloud-native core banking and payments technology provider. The company's flagship product, Vault, is designed to replace legacy core systems by defining financial products as code using Python, rather than hardcoding them into database infrastructure. This decoupling of product logic from core infrastructure is a central component of their market position, allowing for greater agility in product development for incumbent banks. FF News has featured Thought Machine in 51 stories to date. Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, is a dominant provider in the global cloud infrastructure market and has been the subject of 111 reports by FF News. Through its Worldwide Banking and Financial Services Industries division, AWS provides specialized tools like AWS Transform to help highly regulated institutions move away from on-premises hardware. Charith Mendis serves as the Head of Worldwide Banking Industry at AWS, overseeing the strategic direction for financial services clients globally. Together, these companies represent a significant shift toward the "as-a-service" model for the foundational layers of global finance, providing a continuous path from mainframe code to cloud-native core banking. What FF News has reported before. FF News has closely followed the intersection of AI and cloud infrastructure within the financial sector. Ascento Capital recently reported on how Ramp Partners With AWS to Bring AI Finance Operations to AWS Marketplace, highlighting the growing trend of AI-enabled financial services. Additionally, the infrastructure side of the market was highlighted when OpenAssets Launches Institutional Tokenization Infrastructure on AWS Marketplace. Broader industry movements also reflect this shift toward modernization. Innovate Finance Urges UK Action on Open Finance and AI to Secure FinTech Lead, emphasizing the regulatory and competitive pressure on banks to adopt these technologies. Furthermore, the investment landscape remains active, as seen when Molten Ventures Secures £175M First Close for New European Growth Fund, providing capital for the next generation of fintech innovators. What this means. This announcement signals a critical shift in the "buy vs. build" debate for Tier 1 banks. For years, the sheer volume of COBOL code has acted as a moat protecting legacy vendors, as the risk of manual migration was deemed too high for most boards to stomach. By applying generative AI to reverse-engineer business intent rather than just syntax, Thought Machine and AWS are attacking the primary bottleneck of digital transformation. This puts immense pressure on traditional core banking providers who rely on long-term maintenance contracts for legacy systems. The industry must now address whether AI-guided validation is sufficient to satisfy regulators in the event of a systemic migration failure. Featured speakers.

British Business Bank backs Molten Ventures' £175m growth fund. First close includes cornerstone commitment from national development bank as listed investor targets final fund size of £350m Tech investor Molten Ventures plc has announced the first close of its Growth Fund at £175 million. The fund is a continuation of Molten's existing investment strategy of Series B+ investments, with a track record of more than 40 deals and over £700m invested in the past 10 years. The fund offers private institutional capital the opportunity to invest at scale through a private fund structure, while benefiting from the public vehicle's platform and governance. The British Business Bank has committed £75m as its cornerstone investor. Molten Ventures has committed the remaining £100m of the first close and will continue to seek additional investors, with the aim of growing the Growth Fund to a target of £350m. The Growth Fund will invest in companies at the forefront of innovation across key technology sectors including space, AI, FinTech, quantum, DeepTech and hardware, providing them with the liquidity they need to compete globally, while giving Molten greater ability to build meaningful ownership positions in high-conviction businesses. The British Business Bank has been an investor in Molten's listed platform since 2018 and has co-invested alongside Molten in several high-growth UK technology companies, including SatVu, IMU Biosciences, Thought Machine and Paragraf. "Securing the British Business Bank as cornerstone investor is a strong endorsement of Molten's strategy and of the relationship we have built over many years," said Molten Ventures CEO Ben Wilkinson (pictured). "It also underlines the importance of bringing more long-term institutional capital into venture and Growth, so that ambitious UK and European technology companies have the backing they need to scale. "Molten has a strong track record in growth investing, with more than 40 growth-profile deals completed and over £700m invested. The Growth Fund builds on that experience and gives us a dedicated vehicle to support more companies as they scale. "There is no shortage of exceptional founders or technology businesses in the UK and Europe; what they too often lack is sufficient growth capital to help them become global leaders. "This Fund gives Molten greater firepower to back our highest-conviction companies at Series B and beyond, build meaningful ownership positions and channel capital into the next generation of growth. "Alongside our other strategies, including Molten Secondaries, the Growth Fund will strengthen our ability to connect long-term capital with companies that are shaping the future." Robert Greenwood, senior director, funds at British Business Bank, said: "To create deeper pools of late-stage capital for breakthrough technologies, we are helping UK tech investors to launch new growth funds. This commitment is the latest example of that strategy. "Molten Ventures is one of the UK's leading growth investors, with a strong track record of backing fast-growing technology businesses. This fund will help the next generation of tech entrepreneurs scale faster and build global companies from the UK."