The Silicon Review ^Asia

IBM and Italian bank, Banca Carige, have officially launched Dock, a $500M U.S. joint venture, to bring innovative technologies including AI, big data, analytics and cognitive tools to improve the competitiveness of the bank. It was announced earlier this week.

“The partnership with IBM represents an important turning point and a new starting point for Banca Carige as we will be able to take advantage of IBM’s capacity for developing new technologies,” said Paolo Fiorentino, CEO, Banca Carige.

The partnership will bring innovative technologies to the bank’s more than 500 branches and over one million clients. The bank will be able to respond to new business needs by facilitating the simplification of their IT environment while also creating a path to digital transformation that will help drive client experience excellence under a single bank model.

“With this new alliance, a path is born that leads the banking sector towards a future full of new professional skills and opportunities offered today by innovation and technological progress,” said Enrico Cereda, President and CEO, IBM Italy.

According to a report published on PR Newswire’s website, IBM Services will deliver a solution involving all sectors of the banking group and provides for the introduction of innovative technologies with the aim of improving the commercial competitiveness of the Bank. And though Dock will initially focus on driving innovation and competitiveness for Banca Carige, it has also put the gears in motion to lead the region’s banking sector towards a future full of new professional skills and opportunities such as digital banking and Cloud storage.

Dock currently employees 173 people, 133 of whom come from Carige and 40 from IBM, and the road to new hires which will benefit the territory is being opened through collaborations with universities and local institutions, the report adds.