IBS Journal December 2015


Deutsche Bank CEO promises to tear out and replace messy legacy IT systems


John Cryan, CEO of Deutsche Bank, has vowed to tear out and replace much of the bank’s legacy technology to improve its efficiency and save money. According to the Financial Times, Cryan


has expressed great distaste in the way that Deutsche Bank has integrated its technol- ogy. Individual teams have been given too much freedom, he believes, to bloat the network with incompatible programs. Deutsche Bank operated under a sys-


tem of competition, whereby differing departments were pitted against each other to drive efficiency. This has resulted in the bank operating a mishmash of com- peting systems that have to be reconciled by hand.


Tie-up with HCL Technologies The bank has awarded an application development and maintenance contract to HCL Technologies. Under the agreement, HCL will be tasked with providing Deutsche Bank with digital solutions and systems integration as well as designing, building and testing new applications. The vendor will also manage existing


application suites in use at the German global bank, including corporate banking, asset and wealth management, securities and back office operations. Kim Hammonds, COO at Deutsche


Bank, says that the reliability and scalability offered up by HCL would create ‘significant business impact’ for the bank. The news was greeted warmly on the


Bombay Stock Exchange, where the ven- dor’s share price rose by 2.5%.


Crash and burn Hammonds believes that the method of testing that Deutsche Bank uses on its systems is akin to her old company, Boeing, sending planes into the sky to watch them crash and then try to learn from their mistakes. Whether Deutsche Bank will be able to


actually unravel the Gordian knot of inter- locked systems it controls remains to be seen. The firm has tried in the past to insti- gate standardisation with T24 and TCS – both of which failed.


Deutsche Bank, Sydney © Jason, Wikipedia


The bank has more than 100 booking


systems for trade in London alone, and its London-based foreign exchange desk got itself into hot water recently by accidentally paying a US hedge fund $6 billion.


Misconduct Cryan will also have to deal with multiple investigations by regulators into the bank’s alleged misconduct – from rigging Libor interest rates to money laundering accusations in Russia. It is also expected that the compa-


ny will cut 23,000 jobs globally – around 25% of its total staff – through redundan-


© IBS Intelligence 2015


cies and the spinning off of its Postbank division. Deutsche Bank has already initiated


measures to cut costs worldwide. Recently it announced plans to close its onshore investment bank in Russia, resulting in 200 job losses across 1,000 locations in the country. The bank has also recently announced


plans to open a new digital bank headed up by outgoing COO Henry Ritchotte. The new venture will be tasked with generat- ing innovation in the retail and investment space.


Alex Hamilton www.ibsintelligence.com 15


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