Lloyds Banking Group has announced a multi-year agreement with Oracle as it aims to become more cloud-native and maximise its use of data to deliver new services.
As part of the expanded partnership, Lloyds will leverage Oracle’s cloud technology to enhance customer experiences. Building on previous collaboration, the bank has already accelerated its cloud transition, enabling faster delivery of new products and capabilities.
Joe Soule, CIO of Enabling Services at Lloyds Banking Group, commented: “As we focus on growth and diversifying our business, maximising our use of data across the group becomes critical so that we can innovate and deliver new services faster for our customers.
“The ability to flexibly deploy Oracle databases on-premises or in the public cloud, in combination with Microsoft Azure through a multi-cloud approach, enables us to accelerate the pace at which we adopt digital technologies. This ensures we can support our customers with high-performing services and the best customer experience possible.”
As highlighted by Soule, the agreement will enable Lloyds to move its Oracle databases to Oracle Database@Azure. This platform merges the high performance, scalability and reliability of Oracle Database on OCI with the security, adaptability and speed of Microsoft Azure.
By using Oracle Database@Azure, Lloyds can shift its existing on-premise databases to the cloud without needing to redesign or modify them. It also opens the door to building secure, low-latency cloud-native applications by leveraging both OCI and Azure technologies.
Lloyds also plans to enhance several of its databases within its own data centres using Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer, a managed infrastructure solution that brings Oracle’s cloud capabilities directly on-premises.
Richard Smith, Executive VP and General Manager of EMEA Cloud Infrastructure at Oracle, said: “Few sectors are evolving as rapidly as the financial services industry when it comes to cloud adoption.
“Lloyds is one of the companies at the forefront of this transition. By taking advantage of the industry’s most comprehensive and flexible approach to the cloud, Lloyds can streamline its migration to the cloud and enable more innovation for its customers.”
Progressing towards a more digital future
Lloyds Banking Group, which includes brands such as Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has been increasingly focused on becoming a more digital-first organisation, similar to many other traditional financial institutions that have been typically reliant on legacy systems This shift has seen greater investment in technologies like AI, data analytics and cloud infrastructure.
However, this digital transition has also contributed to the ongoing decline of physical bank branches. More branches are closing each month across the UK as services move online. For instance, Santander recently announced the closure of 95 more branches.
While the government is responding with the rollout of shared banking hubs to maintain access to in-person services, high-street banks argue that they are simply evolving to meet digitally changing customer behaviours.
Santander reports a 63% increase in digital transactions since 2019, while transactions completed in branches have dropped by 61% over the same period.
At the same time, traditional banks now face growing competition from digital-native neobanks such as Monzo, Revolut and Starling Bank. These challenger banks are rapidly gaining market share, particularly among younger customers, who represent the future of banking.
One of the key reasons for this success lies in the digital experiences on offer – something Lloyds and other legacy banks are now working hard to match and improve upon, placing a greater focus on personalisation, offering competitive savings accounts and real-time insights on spending.
