Standard Chartered Bank Partners with Microsoft for Cloud-First Bank

London headquartered bank Standard Chartered announced a three-year strategic partnership with tech giant Microsoft to accelerate bank’s move for digital modernization through cloud-first technology.

The partnership marked Standard Chartered Bank’s push for enhanced virtual banking, utilizing a cloud-first banking platform for next-generation payments and banking-as-a-service. The bank will leverage Microsoft’s Azure to migrate core services on the cloud by 2025.

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Two companies will be innovating open banking with real-time payments to help the bank deliver enhanced banking experiences for their customers. Standard Chartered Bank will adapt to a multicloud approach, where significant applications will be based on the cloud.

Standard Chartered Bank Partners with Microsoft

From banking, trading systems, to new digital ventures, everything will run to the cloud for secured and innovative data storage and processing. The cloud-first strategy is critical to the bank’s ambition of making banking easier and more convenient for customers.

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“Cloud is a cornerstone of Standard Chartered’s strategy to meet the present and future banking needs of our clients. Using cloud services improves our ability to be agile and innovative, while increasing our operational efficiency and resilience,” said group chief officer Michael Gorriz.

With a cloud-first strategy, the bank can focus on client benefits and deploy solutions quicker. New business models are also enforced, and customers can expect faster integration to the banking platform.

The bank also announced that its trade finance systems would be moved to Microsoft Azure, benefiting cross-border trading for corporate and institutional clients. The platform utilizes artificial intelligence and data analytics to automate banking processes.

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By enhanced processes, the bank can easily personalize products for clients and ultimately enhance banking experiences. Standard Chartered also said that it will unlock new banking services using the open banking application programming interface (API).

Microsoft corporate vice president Bill Borden said cloud computing will be utilized to modernize the digital infrastructure of the bank, responding to regulatory requirements and customer demands.

“The speed and scale of continuous innovation offered by Azure allow us to innovate with the latest AI services to meet evolving client needs,” said Standard Chartered Bank in a press release. The new banking services and processes are subject to regulatory approvals.

With the increased demand for the digital economy, the bank hopes to be resilient when it comes to risk mitigation, cost, and security. Standard Chartered will be leveraging on flexible and efficient mobile banking to speed up transactions and innovate services.

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