Natwest Group has unveiled a five-year partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and consulting firm Accenture, aimed at accelerating its bank-wide data and AI transformation, ahead of its half-year earnings release set for 25 July.
This collaboration is part of the group's wider strategy to streamline its operations and deliver a more personalised customer experience, as reported by .
The bank plans to centralise data currently spread across multiple systems into one platform, aiming to enhance service speed and product delivery.
Paul Thwaite, Natwest Group Chief Executive, stated: "This collaboration with Accenture and AWS is key to helping us progress the transformation of Natwest as we become a simpler, more technology and data-driven bank".
He added: "Equipped with high-quality data, we can continue to quietly revolutionise how we serve our customers through AI and other technologies."
The initiative is also anticipated to boost back-end operations, including onboarding times and internal risk or regulatory reporting.
While Natwest did not reveal the cost of the project, it stated that the objective is to make its 20 million customer relationships more responsive and data-driven.
Despite speculation from industry insiders about potential job cuts, the bank has refrained from commenting, indicating that workforce changes are not a primary focus.
Sector-wide digital race
Natwest's revamp comes as º£½ÇÊÓƵ banks strive to modernise in the face of growing competition from fintechs and pressure on traditional revenue streams due to declining interest rates. Competitors such as Lloyds Banking Group have recently bolstered their own AI and cloud infrastructure, including transitioning core systems to Google Cloud and implementing numerous generative AI tools throughout the business.
The 2018 TSB outage served as a warning about the operational risks associated with major migrations. Concurrently, regulators have expressed concerns, with both the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority cautioning that an increased dependence on a few cloud providers could create systemic vulnerabilities.
