TSB wants to accelerate its digital transformation, much like its former stablemate Lloyds Banking Group, although unlike Lloyds which chose to partner with Microsoft, TSB has signed a partnership with IBM. That will see the company utilise IBM’s cloud capabilities to enhance its digital offerings.
The services agreement signed by TSB will see IBM build and manage its private cloud environment, running services across TSB’s core banking platforms with all of the infrastructure being operated and managed by IBM under supervision by TSB.
By hosting and managing select services on a private cloud, operated by IBM, TSB will be able to strengthen IT resilience and leverage higher value technology, including AI, to deliver new cloud-native services to its customers.
This announcement follows the TSB’s pledge to invest £120 million to transform digital channels over the next three years, as part of its 2022 strategic plan, announced by the bank’s new CEO, Debbie Crosbie, in November last year and builds on TSB’s commitment in March 2019 to consolidate its IT operations and optimise how it runs its IT infrastructure and supplier relationships.
The financial services industry has seen a significant change in the way it interacts with customers. Banks are embracing an increasingly digital future and transformations need to capitalise on the speed and agility of the public cloud, while also managing the need for security and compliance. Smaller, more agile challenger banks have been able to win over customers with this approach, with the likes of Monzo, Starling and Revolut receiving rave reviews from customers.
A hybrid cloud solution helps to simplify the technological infrastructure so that it can move and manage data, services and workflows across multiple clouds, to continue to offer its clients new and innovative products and provide customer service in a fast, secure and compliant way.
TSB plans to have all of its core banking channels and applications including ATMs, internet banking, mobile banking and high street branches run on a unified cloud platform.
As part of this move, TSB will itself create a new Technology Centre in Edinburgh, bringing around 100 new IT jobs to the region, including technical specialists, data engineers and analysts, and IT run specialists. The new Technology centre will be based in Henry Duncan House in George Street, opening in April 2020.
TSB’s COO, Suresh Viswanathan, said, “Our partnership with IBM marks the next exciting phase in our tech transformation. At a time when both the pace of change and the customer demand for new services is increasing, our partnership ensures our digital offering remains competitive and allows us to act faster to meet the needs of TSB customers.”
“As the financial services industry continues its rapid digital transformation, banks need a reliable, resilient and secure technology environment to meet the needs of customers and address complex security and regulatory requirements,” added IBM UK and Ireland, global technology services general manager, Tosca Colangeli.
“An open hybrid IT cloud platform, built and managed with IBM’s deep industry expertise, is the best foundation for financial services providers to respond to these challenges and prepares them to securely integrate with IBM financial services-ready public cloud capabilities in the future.”
