Overview and Key Developments
- While only 3% of banks surveyed by Accenture did not have a cloud strategy and had not thought of it, only a quarter had cloud-based practices and tools with ongoing efficiency measures in place.
- Currently, about 2.4 billion customers have access to digital banking services. This number is projected to grow over the next four years.
- Bank of America is working with Microsoft to delivery digital transformation. The bank also won the best cloud initiative category at 2019 AFTAs for project Greenfield. It is set to host 80% of its applications in its private cloud to secure customer data and provide high cybersecurity.
- Lloyds Bank, in partnership with Google and Microsoft, is creating cloud-based tools. To compete with online FinTechs and other challengers, Lloyds is looking to digital banking tools for customers.
- IBM has been seeking to gain grounds in the cloud banking space by adding more capacities to its existing offerings. In 2019, it acquired software company Red Hat for $34 billion.
- The European Banking Authority's (EBA) final guidelines on outsourcing came into effect on September 30, 2019. The guidelines provide clarification for regulatory expectations of documentation, risk assessments, and governance and controls around cloud outsourcing arrangements.
Summary
The initial research has identified a few developments in cloud banking, including adoption by some banks and regulatory development, within the past year. The research suggests that a growing number of financial institutions are adopting or looking to adopt cloud strategies, especially as competition arises from online-only FinTechs.