Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy鈥檚 largest bank, has selected to power its new digital banking platform.聽
It has also made a 拢40 million investment into the London-headquartered core banking technology company.
The new platform, Isybank, will initially target four million of Intesa Sanpaolo鈥檚 mass-market customers in Italy.
Intesa Sanpaolo has also indicated an intention to extend Thought Machine鈥檚 core banking engine Vault, which can serve multi-currency and multi-country clients, into the group鈥檚 wider infrastructure.
鈥淥ur new business plan aims to take the fintech challenge head on. This is why we decided to create a new entirely-digital bank to serve our younger retail customers, who prefer not to use branches and don鈥檛 require the same in-person service that our exclusive, affluent and private multichannel clients do,鈥� said Carlo Messina, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo.聽
鈥淭his new digital bank will evolve our retail business from incumbent to fintech challenger in the mass market, with the option to expand internationally.聽
鈥淲e 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.鈥�
Paul Taylor, founder and CEO of Thought Machine, said: 鈥淐omplementing the work we have done with Tier 1 banks around the world, we are now proud to announce that Italy鈥檚 largest bank, and one of Europe鈥檚 leading financial institutions, will adopt Thought Machine鈥檚 technology into its new digital bank.
鈥淲ith Intesa Sanpaolo becoming an investor into the business, we have formed a relationship which will see our technology go further into the wider bank鈥檚 portfolio 鈥� having a central role to play in delivering enhanced digital services and experiences for the bank鈥檚 extensive customer base in Italy and beyond.鈥�
Intesa Sanpaolo has approximately 13.5m customers in Italy, served through its digital and traditional channels, and 7.1m 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.
Thought Machine鈥檚 client roster includes JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered.