IT system consolidations seems to be an ongoing trend in the financial services industry. In March, I shared J.P. Morgan’s plan to shrink the number of IT applications it uses by an overall 25%. Today, the story is about Deutsche Bank, Germany’s leading bank, who has a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia Pacific. A recent Financial Times article highlights the company’s initiative to streamline its IT infrastructure in an effort to reduce costs and simplify operations.
“In line with the bank’s goals of becoming simpler and more efficient, global markets operations is restructuring to reduce costs, strengthen controls and eliminate inefficient manual processes through greater automation,” Deutsche Bank said in an emailed statement.
Having amassed over 4,400 applications in total, the company has eliminated 500 of them thus far, in addition to shedding 450 positions from its global markets unit, which were historically required for the reconciliation of data between systems. John Cryan, Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, indicated last year that the company has plans to reduce its workforce by a total of 9,000 employees and 6,000 contractors.
Improving IT operations is a top priority for Deutsche Bank, along with many other financial institutions. Inefficiency comes at a high cost, whether it’s in the form of extra personnel, capital expenditures, or regulatory fines. To streamline their operations and ensure compliance, firms need to continue to optimize business processes and systems through consolidation, integration, and the deployment of applications in the cloud.
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