Standard Chartered Bank partners with Microsoft to become a cloud-first bank

SINGAPORE AND REDMOND,
WASH. – Media OutReach – 11 August 2020 – Standard Chartered Bank and Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced a three-year strategic
partnership to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation through a cloud-first
strategy. This partnership marks a significant milestone for Standard Chartered
in making its vision for virtual banking, next-generation payments, open
banking and banking-as-a-service a reality. Leveraging Azure as a
preferred cloud platform, the companies will also co-innovate in open banking
and real-time payments to help the bank unlock new banking experiences for
clients.

 

Embarking
on a cloud-first strategy

 

As part of its digital transformation, Standard
Chartered will adopt a multicloud approach, where
significant applications, including its core banking and trading systems and
new digital ventures such as virtual banking and banking as-a-service, will be
cloud-based by 2025, subject to regulatory
approvals. The bank will also adopt a cloud-first principle for all new
software developments and major enhancements.

 

As technology reshapes the banking industry, Standard
Chartered recognizes that a cloud-first strategy is critical to the bank’s
ambition to make banking simpler, faster and more convenient. By being
digital-first, the bank will be able to meet the demand for seamless banking virtually
anytime, anywhere, and make banking more accessible to people across its
network.

 

Michael
Gorriz, Group Chief Information Officer of Standard Chartered, said, “Cloud is
a cornerstone of Standard Chartered’s strategy to meet the present and future
banking needs of our clients. Cloud providers have invested massively in the
reliability and automation of infrastructure and platforms. 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. To
realize our digital ambitions, Standard Chartered has chosen Microsoft as a
strategic partner and this partnership marks a major milestone for the bank in
adopting a cloud-first approach.”

 

Bhupendra
Warathe, Chief Technology Officer, Cloud Transformation at Standard Chartered,
added that “The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the need for businesses and
banks to be resilient from a risk mitigation, cost and security perspective. With
the increasing trend of an always-on digital economy, commercial and consumer clients
are looking for applications and services that empower them to do online
banking from anywhere, flexibly and efficiently. The speed and scale of
continuous innovation offered by Azure allows us to innovate with the latest AI
services to meet evolving client needs. We can pilot new apps in one market and
scale them rapidly across others. This is especially important for a bank with
a footprint as broad and diverse as ours.”

 

Standard
Chartered will adopt Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud platform to meet the bank’s
need for resilient data centers and cloud services and addressing customers’ security,
privacy and compliance requirements across the bank’s global footprint.

 

The
first set of capabilities to move to Microsoft Azure will be Standard
Chartered’s trade finance systems, allowing for seamless cross-border trade for
the bank’s corporate and institutional clients. 

 

The
partnership will also advance the bank’s digital workplace transformation with Microsoft
365 and Microsoft Teams providing modern productivity and collaboration tools to
Standard Chartered’s 84,000 employees across its 60 markets.

 

Co-innovating the future of banking

Standard Chartered will also use Microsoft Azure
artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics capabilities to enhance and
automate banking processes as well as deliver hyper personalization of its
client products and experiences. Co-innovation in open banking application programming
interface (API) and Internet-of-Things-based, real-time payments will also help
the bank unlock new banking experiences for clients.

 

Bill Borden, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide
Financial Services at Microsoft said, “Cloud computing is an enabler for
financial institutions to modernize their infrastructure and systems, to gain
the agility they need to respond to competitive pressures, regulatory
environments and customer demand. We are committed to helping Standard
Chartered Bank in its ongoing digital transformation journey as it strives to
address evolving customer needs and build the next generation of banking
experiences.”

 

Addressing
the social needs of communities in the emerging markets

Standard Chartered strives
to understand the evolving needs of its communities and be an enabler for
change. As a part of the strategic partnership, the bank and Microsoft will
explore sustainable finance and business initiatives to expand sustainability
across the industry.

 

Editors notes:

Link to Michael Gorriz’s
blog “Why
cloud adoption is not an option but a necessity for banks“

About Standard Chartered Bank

We are
a leading international banking group, with a presence in 60 of the world’s
most dynamic markets, and serving clients in a further 85. Our purpose is to
drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage
and values are expressed in our brand promise, Here for good.

 

Standard
Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

 

For
more stories and expert opinions please visit Insights at sc.com. Follow Standard Chartered on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

 

About
Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”
@microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud
and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.

 

For more news and
information, visit https://news.microsoft.com/en-sg/