Deutsche Bank taps Thought Machine for technology overhaul 

Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank has chosen Vault Core, a cloud-based banking system built by Thought Machine, for its operations in Germany. 

The system is set to become the main platform for banking and lending products in the country across personal banking and wealth management. 

 The change is intended to update its technology base, replace older systems, cut complexity, and shorten the time needed to launch new products. 

According to the bank, the move is meant to support efficiency gains in personal banking and provide a platform that can handle further expansion in wealth management. 

Work on the project has already started, and testing is scheduled as a key step before the end of the year.  

The shift to the new platform will happen in stages, with the current systems and the new one running side by side during the transition.  

Product migration is due to begin gradually from 2027, with the aim of maintaining stable operations and uninterrupted service. 

Thought Machine CEO and founder Paul Taylor said:  “Deutsche Bank is setting a clear precedent for how major international banks can modernise their core infrastructure. Replacing disjointed legacy systems with a modern architecture gives the bank the real-time capability needed to streamline operations, strengthen system reliability, and deliver superior customer experiences at scale. We are delighted to enter into this decade-long partnership.” 

Deutsche Bank has appointed GFT to handle transformation and system integration work linked to Vault Core.  

Under its wider multi-year programme, Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank plans to spend about €600m ($698.7m) on IT, operations and AI by the end of 2028.  

The bank expects the effort to produce annual run-rate savings of about €300m by 2028, while also reducing the complexity of its technology set-up. 

The decision forms part of a broader overhaul of the Private Bank’s technology infrastructure and follows the priorities set out at the end of 2025 under Deutsche Bank’s strategic cycle running to the end of 2028. 

At that stage, the bank said it wanted to streamline the Private Bank’s global banking structure by cutting the number of core banking systems from 15 to two cloud-based platforms.  

Vault Core is the first of those two platforms to be chosen. 

Deutsche Bank Private Bank COO Yiping Li said: “With the selection of our future core banking platform, we are now turning strategy into execution. Modernising our core banking infrastructure will help us simplify our technology landscape, reduce complexity and create a more scalable foundation for future growth. Ultimately, this transformation is about delivering a better experience for clients and employees while strengthening the foundations of our business for the years ahead.”