Spanish retail and commercial bank Banco Santander has partnered with Microsoft as a preferred strategic cloud provider to enable the bank’s digital transformation.
The partnership is described as a “multi-year global partnership” and using Microsoft’s expertise, the bank hope to drive its digital innovation and increase operational efficiencies.
Dirk Marzluf, head of technology and operations at Banco Santander, said: “We firmly believe that through successful, customer focused innovation we can earn greater loyalty by improving and personalising customers experiences, while also becoming more agile and efficient.
“Technology is a key enabler to the success of our business and Microsoft is a strong partner who will help us achieve our vision.”
Santander plan to use a range of cloud solutions including: Microsoft Azure, data, artificial intelligence and cognitive services.
The Spanish bank is transitioning its IT infrastructure towards a multi-cloud environment with global platforms supported by agile methodologies as part of a €20 billion spend on digital technology across the next four years.
Tom Keane, corporate vice president of Azure Global at Microsoft, commented: “Our partnership with Santander comes at a transformative time for financial services, which is pivoting to digital quickly in response to industry-wide changes.
“We are looking forward to deepening our cloud engagement with Santander as the company continues to drive digital innovation across its global operations.”
Santander’s UK branch disclosed plans to enable vocal biometric authentication for telephone banking.
