Italian international banking group Intesa Sanpaolo has selected Thought Machine, the UK-headquartered core banking technology company, to power its new digital banking platform.
In conjunction with this partnership, Intesa Sanpaolo has made a £40 million investment in Thought Machine to become part of the company’s growth story.
Intesa Sanpaolo has selected Thought Machine’s core banking engine, Vault, to power Isybank, its new digital banking platform announced recently as part of the group’s 2022-2025 business plan.
Isybank will initially target 4 million of Intesa Sanpaolo’s mass-market customers in Italy with a wide range of digital banking services, while driving a structural cost reduction for the group.
Intesa Sanpaolo has also indicated an intention to extend Thought Machine’s core banking platform into the group’s wider infrastructure as it continues to invest heavily in the bank’s digital transformation, replacing mainframe-based core technology and moving to cloud infrastructure.
Intesa Sanpaolo said that Vault was chosen for its flexibility to serve multi-currency and multi-country clients – with an intention to extend Thought Machine’s role to other client segments beyond mass-market retail banking, both in Italy and internationally.
Intesa Sanpaolo has approximately 13.5 million customers in Italy, served through its digital and traditional channels, and 7.1 million customers abroad, where it is present with subsidiary banks operating in commercial banking in 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Egypt, as well as with an international network specialised in supporting corporate customers in 25 countries.
Carlo Messina, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo said,
“This new digital bank will evolve our retail business from incumbent to fintech challenger in the mass market, with the option to expand internationally. We chose Thought Machine as our partner due to its international standing as a fintech innovator.
We believe so strongly that Thought Machine is the right partner for this transformation that we are also announcing our investment in the company to be part of its growth story.”
Paul Taylor, Founder and CEO of Thought Machine said,
“Complementing the work we have done with Tier 1 banks around the world, we are now proud to announce that Italy’s largest bank, and one of Europe’s leading financial institutions, will adopt Thought Machine’s technology into its new digital bank.
With Intesa Sanpaolo becoming an investor into the business, we have formed a relationship which will see our technology go further into the wider bank’s portfolio – having a central role to play in delivering enhanced digital services and experiences for the bank’s extensive customer base in Italy and beyond.”