KeyBank partners with Google Cloud on cloud-first digital banking

Google Cloud said today it’s partnering with KeyBank, a subsidiary of KeyCorp., and the consultancy Deloitte Touche Ltd., on a new “cloud-first banking” initiative.

KeyBank is aiming to tap Google Cloud to become the first large regional bank in the U.S. to operate its primary platforms and applications in the cloud. By doing so, it says it will be able to transform how its develops, operationalizes and delivers digital experiences to its customers.

To make that happen, KeyBank said it intends to leverage Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence and data services to enhance its existing “client-first” approach and bring about more flexible and personalized digital banking experiences. For instance, KeyBank will tap Contact Center AI, a cloud-based virtual agent service, to assist with answering customer calls. The service aids human customer service agents by providing them with up to date information on each caller, and can even field some basic inquiries without any human intervention.

KeyBank has been a happy Google Cloud customer for some years already as one of the early adopters of its Anthos multicloud application development platform. It also uses Google Cloud’s Kubernetes service to power many of its digital services and applications. KeyBank is also behind Laurel Road for Doctors, which is a digital healthcare professional-focused bank that launched last year and runs entirely on Google Cloud’s infrastructure.

“We’ve enjoyed a long-standing relationship with KeyBank, and this expansion will evolve how the bank serves its clients,” Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian said in a statement.

Deloitte will play its part by helping KeyBank as it begins to migrate much of its on-premises data center infrastructure to Google Cloud. It said doing so will unlock substantial business value for KeyBank, enabling it to launch new products more rapidly with advanced capabilities around fraud prevention, anti-money laundering and data analytics. KeyBank said it aims to begin migrating its computing infrastructure to Google Cloud this year and complete the transition by 2025.

“Google, KeyBank, and Deloitte bring together a shared vision of innovation, utilizing modern engineering techniques to digitize banking processes and accelerate KeyBank’s exit of traditional data centers to Google Cloud,” said Janet Foutty, executive chair of the board at Deloitte US.

Photo: Can Pac Swire/Flickr