ANZ Bank signs $450m IBM deal

ANZ Bank has extended its long-running partnership with IBM under a new $450 million, five-year deal that will help deliver technology for the bank's regional Asian strategy.  

Under the arrangement, ANZ will be able to access all of IBM's software products, and the pair will co-invest in an innovation lab under which ANZ's developers will build new services and products.

The lab will be powered by IBM's Bluemix cloud development platform-as-a-service offering, and will create products that can be used across ANZ's entire super regional network.

ANZ has signed up for IBM's z13 mainframe and Power 8 infrastructure within its private cloud environment, and will tap into to IBM's wider product catalogue for its core banking and infrastructure needs.

“Understanding our customers’ needs and preferences around mobile and digital banking is critical to our business and to providing a superior customer experience," ANZ CIO Scott Collary said in a statement.

"We therefore need to ensure we’re meeting these needs in an innovative, consistent and seamless way and with this partnership with IBM, we’re working to achieve this goal.”

IBM and ANZ have held a 40-year commercial partnership. The friendship has included the use of IBM's Watson machine learning technology to make better product recommendations for customers.

The latest arrangement will allow ANZ to respond and adapt more quickly to the changing financial landscape, it said.

"The IBM agreement will provide common platforms across ANZ’s network as it continues to grow as a super-regional bank and will allow the bank to deliver a more integrated and innovative banking experience for digital customers," the pair said in a statement.

Unlike rivals Westpac and CBA, ANZ opted against completely overhauling its core systems, deciding instead to prioritise a $1.5 billion program to upgrade its online and mobile front end systems.

The bank recently announced it had appointed a panel of external technology executives to advise its board on the "strategic application" of new technologies.