London, 15 January, 2020 - TSB today announced it has selected IBM Services as its partner to accelerate the Bank’s ambition to become a truly digital business with IBM cloud capabilities.

The services agreement will see IBM build and manage TSB’s private cloud environment, running services across TSB’s core banking platforms with all of the infrastructure being operated and managed by IBM under supervision by TSB. By hosting and managing select services on a private cloud, operated by IBM, TSB will be able to strengthen IT resilience and leverage higher value technology, including AI, to deliver new innovative cloud-native services to its customers.  This announcement follows the Bank’s pledge to invest £120 million to transform digital channels over the next three years, as part of its 2022 strategic plan, announced by the Bank’s new CEO, Debbie Crosbie, in November last year and builds on TSB’s commitment in March 2019 to consolidate its IT operations and optimise how it runs its IT infrastructure and supplier relationships.

The financial services industry has seen a significant change in the way it interacts with customers. Banks are embracing an increasingly digital future and transformations need to capitalise on the speed and agility of the public cloud, while also managing the need for security and compliance. A hybrid cloud solution helps to simplify the technological infrastructure so that it can move and manage data, services and workflows across multiple clouds, to continue to offer its clients new and innovative products and provide excellent cutomer service in a fast, secure and compliant way. 

This is the first step in the TSB strategy to optimise its new state-of-the-art platform which provides multi-cloud and data capabilities for the Bank. All core banking channels and applications including ATMs, internet banking, mobile banking and high street branches will now run on a unified cloud platform. This will offer customers the best services while ensuring the security and confidentiality of their data.

As part of this move, TSB will itself also create a new Technology Centre in Edinburgh, bringing around 100 new IT jobs to the region, including technical specialists, data engineers and analysts, and IT run specialists.  The new Technology centre will be based in Henry Duncan House in George Street, opening in April 2020.  

TSB’s Chief Operating Officer, Suresh Viswanathan, said: “Our partnership with IBM marks the next exciting phase in our tech transformation. At a time when both the pace of change and the customer demand for new services is increasing, our partnership ensures our digital offering remains competitive and allows us to act faster to meet the needs of TSB customers.”

“As the financial services industry continues its rapid digital transformation, banks need a reliable, resilient and secure technology environment to meet the needs of customers and address complex security and regulatory requirements,” said IBM UK and Ireland, Global Technology Services General Manager, Tosca Colangeli. An open hybrid IT cloud platform, built and managed with IBM’s deep industry expertise, is the best foundation for financial services providers to respond to these challenges and prepares them to securely integrate with IBM financial services-ready public cloud capabilities in the future.”

IBM Services has been at the epicenter of taking financial institutions around the globe to the future of banking and delivering customer excellence with cloud and AI technologies. IBM is already addressing the industry’s key issues like managing data, security, services, and workflows across a hybrid, multi-cloud environment, with a suite of solutions including: IBM Multicloud Manager, IBM Cloud Paks, Cloud Garages and Cloud Migration Services. IBM also rolled out the first Financial Services-ready public cloud late last year to help the industry tackle compliance in a safe, secure, cost effective and responsible manner.

IBM and TSB signed this transaction in IBM's fourth quarter of 2019. 

Notes to editor:

Since moving to a modern banking platform, TSB’s IT resilience has improved, with fewer outages: https://www.yourmoney.com/saving-banking/banks-suffer-it-glitches-five-times-a-week/. 

About IBM Cloud
With over $20B in annual cloud revenue, IBM has built a leading enterprise hybrid cloud business. This includes a comprehensive range of as-a-service offerings, software, hardware and professional services that enable IBM to advise, move, build and manage cloud solutions across public, private and on-premises environments. Through its global network of more than 60 cloud data centers across 19 countries and 18 availability zones across 6 regions, IBM public cloud helps enterprises in all industries to meet security, resiliency, performance, and global deployment requirements. Built on an open source, multitenant environment, clients have secured access to an enterprise-grade IaaS and a leading PaaS that provides them with the latest developer capabilities and ready-to-go innovation engines. This includes more than 190 cloud-native APIs, such as AI, blockchain, IoT, serverless and quantum computing, and consistent function all the way to the edge. Several financial institutions including BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Westpac and others are already working with IBM on their public cloud journey. BNP has strengthened its ability to subscribe to "As a Service" IT services through the IBM Public Cloud. 

For more information, visit https://www.ibm.com/cloud/public

Press contacts

Supreet Thomas
Head of Communications, TSB 
Mob: +7519 502 123

Lucy Linthwaite
External Relations Leader, IBM UK and Ireland
Mob: +7920 823429