Arvest Bank, a community bank with over $26 billion in assets, announced a five-year partnership with Google Cloud to “enable and accelerate its multi-year digital transformation strategy.”
The announcement “follows the bank’s partnership with technology leader Thought Machine, and comes on the heels of its announcement that growth strategist Laura Merling has joined Arvest to lead transformation, technology, and bank operations.”
Arvest will “overhaul its current IT architecture and systems, including migrating Arvest’s data centers to Google Cloud and undertaking a full-scale digital transformation.” The bank will also leverage Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools “to enhance customer experience and streamline banking services.”
Arvest CEO Kevin Sabin said:
“The rapid shifts around consumer financial needs and behaviors, along with the expectation for consistent customer engagement across channels, impose unprecedented demands for technology and speed of execution. Moving to the cloud is another key component to our transformation.”
Through this partnership, Arvest will “use Google Cloud services” to focus on the following strategic imperatives:
- Advance digital banking by using AI tools, technology, and solutions such as Contact Center AI (CCAI) Insights to improve the contact center experience
- Build business agility to meet the changing needs of retail and commercial customers; from using Document AI to advance commercial lending decisions, to using AI tools to help meet regulatory requirements
- Offer training and certification opportunities for Arvest employees on Google Cloud’s tools and services
- Drive sustainability by decreasing Arvest’s data center carbon footprint through cloud migration
Laura Merling, Arvest Bank Chief Transformation and Operations Officer, said:
“The disruption in the financial services industry has only just begun. Data, insights, and artificial intelligence are the foundation for that disruption, from reshaping credit risk modeling and better supporting underserved communities, to rethinking data driven relationship management. Collaborating with Google Cloud means we will not only gain access to the best tools, technologies, and expertise to deliver community banking in a digital world, but also we will be able to drive sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint by moving to the cloud.”
Janet Kennedy, vice president, North America, Google Cloud, said:
“With its storied history of delivering on the promise of helping people find financial solutions for life, Arvest is taking an innovative approach toward reinventing and transforming community banking. We see great value in leveraging the combination of Google Cloud’s leading experience in artificial intelligence and Arvest’s knowledge and expertise in community banking to establish a better approach to serving customers.”
With more than $26 billion in assets, Arvest Bank claims it is “a leading community-based financial institution serving more than 110 communities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.”
Established in 1961, Arvest Bank is “committed to meeting the needs of its more than 830,000 retail and business customer households by continually investing in the digital tools and services customers expect.”
Its extensive network of more than 200 banking locations “provides loans, deposits, treasury management, credit cards, mortgage loans and mortgage servicing as a part of its growing list of digital services.”
Arvest is “an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC.”
Google Cloud “accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business.” They aim to “deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry.”
Customers in more than 200 countries and territories “turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.”
