Commonwealth Bank of Australia to invest $5bn in technology over the next five years

August 7, 2019

Hot on the heels of its investment in FinTech unicorn Klarna, Commonwealth Bank of Australia has reiterated that it is committed to invest $5bn in technology over the next five years.

The news was part of the bank’s annual report. “We plan to invest over $5bn over the next five years with much of that going into technology to keep improving our systems and services and to maintain our leadership position,” said Matt Comyn, CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Talking about the plans, Comyn acknowledged that combining innovation with the financial institution’s service could yield “exceptional banking experiences for our customers”.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia plans to spin these investments off the success of its mobile banking app which has been ranked number one by Forrester, the analyst agency. In other words, it is doubling down on its commitment to boost personalization offerings for its customers.

This comes as the bank is facing more competition from challenger banks and other new competitors, many of who are leveraging emerging tech and data through open banking and comprehensive credit reporting. Commonwealth Bank of Australia plans to tackle this challenge by investing in customer-focused innovation to further improve its customer experience.

The bank also aims to invest in cybersecurity, stating it vies this a key differentiator. But Commonwealth Bank of Australia is hardly alone in investing in digital defences. As FinTech Global recently reported, the proportion of RegTech investments that has to do with cybersecurity has grown steadily since 2014. It has jumped from 14.4 per cent in 2014 to 30.9 per cent in 2018, skyrocketing to 42.6 per cent in the first six months of 2019.

The news of Commonwealth Bank of Australia reconfirming that it is investing $5bn in technology came just as the bank chipped in to Swedish payment instalment scaleup Klarna’s new $460m equity round.