Elly Yates-Roberts |
Standard Chartered Bank and Microsoft have entered a three-year partnership to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation through a cloud-first strategy. Microsoft says that Standard Chartered will use Microsoft Azure to “make banking simpler, faster and more convenient”.
According to Microsoft, the partnership will help Standard Chartered realise new offerings like virtual banking and next-generation payments through co-innovation, while allowing it to deliver seamless banking virtually anywhere and at any time.
“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,” said Bhupendra Warathe, chief technology officer of cloud transformation at Standard Chartered. “The speed and scale of continuous innovation offered by Azure allows us to innovate with the latest artificial intelligence services to meet evolving client needs.”
Standard Chartered will make Azure a preferred cloud platform to leverage its security, privacy and compliance protocols. The bank will also use Microsoft 365 and Teams to improve productivity and collaboration among its 84,000 employees.
“Cloud computing is an enabler for financial institutions to modernise their infrastructure and systems, to gain the agility they need to respond to competitive pressures, regulatory environments and customer demand,” said Bill Borden, corporate vice president of financial services at Microsoft. “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.”