Deutsche Bank taps Oracle to simplify its IT, cut costs

By Patricia Uhlig

FRANKFURT, June 24 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has tapped software firm Oracle to simplify its information technology systems, enabling Germany's top lender to cut costs by several hundred million euros, a Deutsche Bank board member said.

Deutsche Bank has spent years modernising its computer systems that have repeatedly caused headaches and which former CEO John Cryan had publicly called "lousy".

Oracle is planning to transfer platforms of some of Deutsche Bank's core functions such as payments, trading and risk management to one system, promising smooth operation and regular updates, the two groups said on Thursday.

"We want to reduce the complexity of our technology estate," Deutsche Bank Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert said, who joined from SAP in 2019 and has since been reorganising the bank's IT systems.

"The goal is to run the bank with around one third of the applications we have today," he told Reuters.

The migration is expected to take 3-5 years and should help lower Deutsche Bank's total annual costs to 16.7 billion by 2022 from the 19.5 billion it posted in 2020.

Deutsche declined to comment on how much it was investing in the IT upgrades.

For less critical applications, Deutsche already uses technology from Google and will continue to work with SAP technology.

Oracle is setting up a private cloud for Deutsche Bank, ensuring better protection of data than if a public cloud is used. Oracle has created clouds for others but the Deutsche cloud will be its largest to date, Oracle manager Juan Loaiza said. (Writing by Arno Schuetze; editing by Jason Neely)