BNP Paribas renews IBM partnership, unveils new cloud infrastructure for 2028

By Gloria Methri

BNP Paribas has signed a renewed and expanded multi-year agreement with IBM, reinforcing a strategic collaboration that dates back to 2019. The French banking group, which has hosted IBM Cloud in its data centres for several years, is now extending the partnership with a new infrastructure initiative set to go live in 2028.

Under the terms of the expanded deal, BNP Paribas will establish a dedicated area within its data centres for IBM Cloud operations. This new environment is intended to enhance operational resilience, ensure redundancy for critical services such as payments, and strengthen data security in line with rising regulatory expectations.

The announcement comes amid growing regulatory pressure under the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which introduces stricter requirements for financial institutions regarding business continuity and IT risk management. The expansion will further bolster BNP Paribas’ ability to manage risks associated with cloud service providers, a priority area under DORA. By retaining IBM Cloud within its data centres, the bank maintains a hybrid approach that combines the benefits of cloud scalability with direct control over infrastructure.

Beyond infrastructure resilience, the agreement also deepens BNP Paribas’ access to advanced GPU resources on IBM Cloud, integrated into its existing architecture. These will be leveraged to support internal teams and business units in developing and deploying generative AI use cases, as the bank explores new avenues for AI-driven innovation in financial services.

BNP Paribas is concurrently accelerating its cloud-native application modernisation programme using Red Hat OpenShift®, IBM’s Kubernetes-based container platform.

“We continuously invest in cutting-edge technologies to strengthen the resilience of our infrastructures and drive innovation for our clients, employees, and partners,” said Marc Camus, Chief Information Officer of BNP Paribas. “By combining GPUS as a service, a dedicated, state-of-the-art environment within our data centres, and a cloud-native infrastructure, we are strengthening our technological foundation, as well as the security and the compliance of our information systems.”

“For decades, IBM and BNP Paribas have worked together to build the banking infrastructure of the future, underpinned by the necessary resilience. Since then, the bank has joined IBM’s growing ecosystem of financial institutions and technology partners, leveraging IBM Cloud for Financial Services to drive their mission of providing the best digital banking experience to customers, with security and compliance at the forefront,” said Alan Peacock, General Manager of IBM Cloud. “This latest milestone in our partnership will provide expanded enterprise-grade Cloud services across the entire bank to unlock new possibilities with AI and cloud innovation not only for BNP Paribas, but for enterprises around the world.”