IBM pens agreement with ICBC

The United States tech giant IBM announced it has signed a $63 million agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest commercial bank, to help the latter's Argentina branch accelerate its digital transformation over the next five years.

Under the deal, IBM will help ICBC Argentina optimize its customer experience with artificial intelligence and cloud technologies. IBM, for instance, will allow the bank to improve response time by predicting 75 percent of specific system failures, understand online user behavior and preferences in its home banking platform and reduce up to 30 percent of client queries through online services powered by AI platform Watson.

Guillermo Tolosa, chief information officer of the ICBC Argentina, said "Working with IBM Services allows us to focus on our business strengths and leverage IBM's experience in artificial intelligence, cloud and services with open and secure standards, to consolidate our growth and offer customers an easy, accessible and convenient experience, while at the same time complying with the needs of our highly regulated industry."

Banks are faced with changing consumer behavior and expectations in areas such as real-time banking, mobile services and access to a more complete view of their finances. To address customers' expectations, ICBC Argentina has undertaken a plan designed to accelerate its digital transformation for a more personalized banking experience.

Roberto Alexander, country manager of IBM Argentina, said "IBM and ICBC will continue creating innovative solutions, providing deeper insight into its clients' behaviors, enabling them to make more informed decisions with information and launch products and services faster."

ICBC Argentina is a universal bank that provides financial services through 119 branches and 877 ATMs and self-service terminals in 18 provinces and more than 3,700 employees.