Deutsche Bank signs 10-year deal to re-engineer wholesale banking IT

Deutsche Bank has signed a 10-year deal with HP to re-engineer the IT that underpins its wholesale banking arm in preparation for the next phase of its digital transformation.

The multi-billion euro deal will see the German banking giant use cloud platform HP Helion, modernising the IT that supports the bank's applications.

It forms the next part of Deutsche Bank's digital transformation. HP will provide datacentre services on-demand, including storage platforms as a service and hosting. The deal with HP will largely replace work previously carried out by in-house teams, with a small number of bank staff moving to the supplier.

The bank wants to re-engineer its underlying technology platform globally and standardise its IT foundations to support modern technologies such as automation. Once this is achieved, the infrastructure, which will harness mid-range systems, will support the introduction of digital services in the back office and for customers.

Deutsche Bank will retain control of IT architecture, application development and IT security.

Henry Ritchotte, COO at Deutsche Bank, said the agreement will enable the bank to standardise IT and reduce costs. 

"Having a more modern and agile technology platform will further improve the bank's ability to launch new products and services and lay the foundation for the next phase of its digital strategy," he said.

As part of the deal, the bank will use a customised version of HP's enterprise cloud platform, Helion, according to HP CEO Meg Whitman.

Deutsche Bank is investing in future technologies. It recently appointed its first chief data officer as part of its plan to introduce digital practices. JP Rangaswami joined from software-as-a-service giant Salesforce.com, where he had been chief scientist since 2010. Prior to that, Rangaswami had a five-year spell at BT and before that was CIO at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

The bank is aware of threats to its business from companies such as Apple and PayPal in the payments market. Banks in the UK increasingly consider companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook as their biggest competitive threat. This trend is seeing banks look for partnerships in the IT industry, including joint ventures and investments in startups.

Deutsche Bank set up a joint innovation venture with IBM, Microsoft and Indian IT services firm HCL Technologies last year to improve its digital credentials.