October 15, 2019; Dubai, United Arab Emirates:   In a further boost to its digital transformation initiative, Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), one of the leading banks in the UAE, today announced its partnership with Microsoft for the deployment of mission critical workloads on Azure Cloud aligned with the cloud strategy. 

 

The announcement comes after the recent launch of Microsoft’s two new cloud regions in the UAE, one in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi that will aim to serve Middle East organizations by empowering them to avail the Microsoft’s trusted and intelligent cloud availing high performance, scalability, security, data residency and the broadest compliance standards. 

 

Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Bank of Dubai, said: “As part of our commitment of becoming a ‘default digital’ bank, we are pleased to partner with Microsoft to leverage the Microsoft Azure Cloud, which will help us increase our business efficiencies, support digital culture change and better meet our customer needs.”

 

“CBD has been focusing on digital transformation across all business lines, and this partnership will further reinforce our position as a digital and innovation leader in the financial industry, underscored by Microsoft’s investment in security, transparency and regulatory compliance” he added.

 

CBD has been implementing several initiatives to promote innovation across the financial services industry and particularly in the area of digitization to deliver engaging customer experiences. The adoption of the Microsoft Azure cloud will further enable the bank to modernize its technology landscape, enhance its performance, reinvent customer engagement and promote innovation within the entity.  The move will also boost CBD’s existing innovative initiatives such as Fraud prevention, AML, conversational banking user experiences, AI and analytics using the Microsoft Azure Cloud services.

 

“The UAE’s Financial Services Industry, in recent times, has exponentially prioritized the culture of innovation across its different line of businesses, and banks like CBD have been at the frontier of this effort to achieve the vision of a truly digital bank,” Said Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE. “The Microsoft Azure cloud will deliver on CBD’s vision to digitally transform itself into a modern banking institution that can adapt and respond to the ever-changing customer needs.” 

 

CBD will be one of the first financial institutions in the UAE to leverage Microsoft’s new cloud regions in the UAE. The Microsoft Azure cloud is home to several digitally innovative organizations across the Middle East, as they seek to better engage their customers, empower employees, optimise operations and reinvent products and services.