As technology continues to reshape the banking industry, Standard Chartered Bank and Microsoft have announced a three-year strategic partnership to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation through a cloud-first strategy.
Leveraging Azure as a preferred cloud platform, the companies will co-innovate in open banking and real-time payments to help unlock new banking experiences for clients with the ambition of making banking simpler, faster, and more convenient.
The bank will adopt a multi-cloud approach as part of its digital transformation where significant applications, including its core banking and trading systems along with new digital ventures such as virtual banking and banking-as-a-service, will be cloud-based by 2025.
By being digital-first, Standard Chartered hopes to meet the demand for seamless virtual banking and make banking more accessible to people across its network.
Michael Gorriz, group chief information officer of Standard Chartered, said: “Using cloud services improves our ability to be agile and innovative, while increasing our operational efficiency and resilience. As disruption in the financial industry continues, we can focus on client benefits by deploying our solutions quicker and allowing for faster integration of new business models and partners.”
Bill Borden, corporate vice president of worldwide financial services at Microsoft, added: “Cloud computing enables financial institutions to gain the agility they need to respond to competitive pressures, regulatory environments and customer demand. We are committed to helping Standard Chartered in its ongoing digital transformation journey as it strives to address evolving customer needs and build the next generation of banking experiences.”
