Deutsche Bank has significantly decreased its reliance on external IT service providers, shifting from a 70% dependency to just 30% over the last five years, according to Bernd Leukert, the bank’s chief technology, data, and innovation officer.
“Yes, it has reduced… We are now close to achieving 70% with internal engineers. But when we started this journey five years ago, it was roughly only 30%,” Leukert told FE. The bank currently employs over 18,000 technologists globally, including approximately 8,000 in India, operating out of Bengaluru and Pune.
Despite this reduction in outsourcing, Deutsche Bank continues to work with technology vendors rather than developing all solutions independently.
“We have expertise in banking and managing customer data, but we are not necessarily the best at building models ourselves. That’s why we partner with firms like Google and train their models with our data,” Leukert explained.
To optimize costs, the bank has embraced a pay-as-you-use model for cloud services. Unlike traditional on-premises setups that require provisioning for peak usage, this approach allows Deutsche Bank to pay only for actual consumption.
“The advantage with Google is price elasticity. We pay based on usage — higher costs during peak times, but lower costs when demand drops,” he noted.
By migrating to the cloud, Deutsche Bank has achieved a 30% reduction in operational expenses, improving efficiency while maintaining flexibility in IT spending.
“Our operational costs have dropped by 30% since moving to the cloud. This transition has helped us consolidate infrastructure, improve scalability, and allocate resources more efficiently,” Leukert added.
Speaking at Deutsche Bank’s ‘Bank on Tech’ event, Leukert highlighted the contributions of the bank’s India-based teams in advancing technological solutions, particularly in the development of large language models (LLMs) in collaboration with external partners.
He also emphasized the importance of a standardized platform approach, which he introduced based on his experience in the technology sector.
“Previously, rigorous standardization and platform discipline were lacking. When I joined, that was one of the key changes I implemented,” he said.
