Deutsche Bank and Google intend to sign a major multi-year agreement to build technology-based financial products for clients and deliver cutting-edge cloud services.
Both organisations have signed a ‘letter of intent’ and plan to sign the multi-year contract within the next few months. Deutsche Bank will overhaul its current IT architecture and systems, and gain increased access to data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
The new technologies will assist Deutsche Bank’s treasury clients with day-to-day tasks such as cash flow forecasting, improved risk analytics, and advanced security solutions.
“This cooperation with Google Cloud is a significant step forward for our technology strategy, and will transform the way we produce and deliver our client services,” said Bernd Leukert, Deutsche Bank’s chief technology, data and innovation officer. “By bringing together the best of both cultures, we look forward to creating new business models leveraging artificial intelligence, data analytics, and more, with an established technology and innovation leader.”
Deutsche Bank added it has been vetting potential new technology partners since February 2020 to support its multi-vendor cloud strategy, while creating next-generation financial products. The bank will continue to work closely with its existing technology partners, but will move forward with Google to deliver its new cloud service.
The major deal with Google follows Deutsche Bank’s move to expand its client communication channels with WhatsApp via the Symphony platform. Deutsche Bank integrated WhatsApp with the Symphony platform so it can chat securely with clients at any time, while meeting compliance criteria such as data retention and surveillance.
“The partnership with Google Cloud will be an important driver of our strategic transformation,” said Christian Sewing, CEO, Deutsche Bank. “It demonstrates our determination to invest in our technology as our future is strongly linked to successful digitisation. It is as much a revenue story as it is about costs.”
Deutsche Bank is in the midst of a major business transformation and restructuring plans, which includes a targeted reduction in adjusted costs of around €6 billion by 2022 and the loss of approximately 18,000 full-time positions. The bank’s electronic equities and prime brokerage clients have also been transitioned to BNP Paribas under the restructure.
“For more than 150 years, Deutsche Bank has been an industry pioneer, with a strong record of innovation in the financial services sector,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, commented. “We’re excited about our strategic partnership and the opportunity for Google Cloud to be helpful to Deutsche Bank and its clients as they grow their business and shape the future of the financial services industry.”