Lloyds Bank’s technology and data analytics deployment is expanding its reach, growing its consumer base and cutting costs, allowing the bank to see more than $1 billion in savings.

“We have hired more than 4,000 colleagues across data and tech who are accelerating our technology modernization,” Chief Executive Charlie Nunn said during the bank’s Q4 earnings call today. “This transformation of capabilities …  helped us deliver the 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) of targeted gross cost savings.” 

Investing in its online and mobile banking channels, Lloyds has automated 70% of all business banking and small and medium enterprises lending decisions, Nunn said. 

Technology has also helped increase Lloyds’ productivity, with the number of active customers served per full time employee jumping by more than 30% in 2024, Nunn said. 

The $1.1 trillion bank aims to increase its cloud adoption and decommissioning legacy tech to be better able to adapt to new tech like gen AI, Nunn said. 

“We have created a center of excellence including around 200 data scientists and engineers,” Nunn said. “We are developing use cases, such as our knowledge support tool currently being rolled out to 10,000 colleagues across the group, and an AI-driven money management tool for our mass affluent customers.” 

Lloyds has been investing in AI to streamline its operations and as Bank Automation News previously reported, has deployed the tech for: 

• Providing code translation between software engineers to categorize company documents; 

• Collaborating with educational institutions and regulators to develop AI applications; and 

• Developing customer-facing AI initiatives and processes it plans to launch in 2025. 

The London-based bank reported 2024 operating costs, which includes a technology expense of $11.8 billion, were up 3% year over year. 

THE BIG PICTURE: Lloyds is in good company as Deutsche Bank, BNP and Citizens Bank are also beefing up their tech teams to deploy new tech like AI and gen AI. 

The $1.3 trillion Deutsche Bank hired 1,300 tech specialists working in cloud, data and AI roles as it looks to reduce its dependence on “external staff and develop internal talent,” a spokesperson told Bank Automation News. 

The $230 billion Citizens has hired 750 engineers over the past four years to boost its in-house technology innovation capabilities in cloud, infrastructure and software roles, Michael Ruttledge, chief information officer and head of enterprise technology, previously told BAN. 

BY THE NUMERS: For fiscal 2024, Lloyds reported: 

• Active digital banking customers at 22.7 million, up 6% YoY; 

• Net income of $22.3 billion, down 5% YoY; and 

• Net interest income of $16.1 billion, down 7% YoY. 

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