UniCredit and IBM are to create a joint venture company selling cloud-based IT infrastructure services to financial institutions across Europe.
The JV agreement is part of a ten-year 'multi-billion' dollar deal to transform the IT infrastructure that supports all of UniCredit's commercial and private banking activities in Europe, including the introduction of new service models and a cloud-based infrastructure for its data centre.
IBM says the introduction of cloud analytics will make it possible for UniCredit to better predict and understand trading in financial markets, manage spending and provide innovative customer services.
To remain ahead of the pack, the bank and vendor plan to build a 'Value Creation Centre' that will monitor trends in the banking and IT industries and identify emerging disruptive technologies.
The deal will see the creation of a joint venture between UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions - the global service company of UniCredit - and IBM, which will have employees in Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Czech Republic. The new company will market and deliver cloud-based IT infrastructure services not only to UniCredit, state the partners, but also to other companies and institutions.