Last week, fintech firm Crédit Mutuel announced the extension of its partnership with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to devise new ways of working to better serve the bank’s 12 million customers. Crédit Mutuel reported it has selected IBM Cloud, Watson and advanced cybersecurity technologies to fundamentally change how its customer relationships are developed and maintained.
Crédit Mutuel revealed that under the extended partnership with IBM, it will be equipped to manage risk and compliance issues such as anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism, with tighter controls and monitoring with business and client identification. The company also reported that in the IBM Cloud, Watson services will be secured in a fully encrypted, dedicated and isolated environment in France with back-up in Germany. In keeping with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, Crédit Mutuel customer data is private and will never be for sale. Crédit Mutuel and IBM are fully aligned on their values around customer data protection.
While sharing more details about the project, Nicolas Théry, Chairman of Crédit Mutuel CM11 Group, stated:
“Crédit Mutuel is deeply involved in a strategic partnership with IBM that will enable it to use technology and innovation to help people. Through this new joint-construction stage, Crédit Mutuel is enabled to transform its productivity gains and growth opportunities and pave the way for new services for millions of Crédit Mutuel customers and members.”
David Kenny, Senior Vice President of IBM Watson & Cloud platform, then added:
“Crédit Mutuel and IBM share a deep-rooted commitment to empowering professionals with AI to drive innovation, while ensuring this technology is adopted with utmost responsibility and care. Crédit Mutuel is turning these values into action by using Watson to build intelligence into every fabric of its company, while training its employees to collaborate effectively with the technology and guaranteeing complete data security and protection of customer information.”