As part of the deal, Lloyds Banking Group will deploy various services from Google Cloud to help in its objective of optimisation, modernisation, and improvement of the customer experience

Lloyds-Banking-HQ

Headquarters of Lloyds Banking Group in London. (Credit: Carcharoth/Wikipedia.org)

Lloyds Banking Group has signed a five-year cloud contract with Google Cloud in an effort to accelerate the implementation of its £3bn digital transformation plans.

As part of the contract, the British banking group will deploy several services from Google Cloud to help in its objective of optimisation, modernisation and improvement of the customer experience.

The collaboration between the parties will combine expertise and also explore the new technologies designed at reshaping the banking industry and have the potential for enabling quicker and easier customer transactions.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said: “Banking customers today expect secure access to their funds, without downtime, and delivered through the modern experiences they receive in other aspects of their lives.

“We are proud to work with such an established institution as Lloyds, working with them on one of the biggest digital transformation journeys to redefine the next generation of financial services.”

According to Lloyds Banking Group, the collaboration is part of its technology strategy that will consolidate on its multi-cloud approach. Furthermore, the partnership will add Google Cloud to the banking group’s technology portfolio, thereby fast-tracking its goal to deploy smarter technology and better experiences to its UK customers.

The collaboration is expected to use the latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate more customised experiences for customers, with an aim to introduce them faster to the market.

Lloyds Banking Group transformation director Zaka Mian said: “As the UK’s largest digital bank we have made strong progress in transforming not only our systems, but also how we work.

“The size of our digital transformation is huge and Google Cloud’s capabilities will help drive this forward, increasing the pace of innovation, as well as bringing new services to our customers quickly and at scale. This collaboration gives us a strategic advantage to continue as a leader in banking technology.”

Lloyds Banking Group also has a partnership with Microsoft

As part of the same digital transformation strategy, the British banking group also forged a new partnership with Microsoft in January 2020.

The partnership will see Microsoft deliver a modern digital workplace for all the employees of the banking group. Included in these are the development of Microsoft Managed Desktop, which will give the employees access to productivity tools within Office 365 along with the security capability of Windows 10, and an advanced device solution to support currency management.