Investments in innovation

The IT initiatives contained in the 2023-26 Strategic Plan are intended to significantly accelerate the process of digitalizing and industrializing the Group’s services, which was launched with the previous plan and the initiatives contained in the Digital Agenda, a fundamental pillar of our strategic development.

We will invest €230m over the three years covered by the plan (25% more than the annual average for the 2019-23 IT Strategic Plan), to launch an organic transformation process able to transform both the business divisions and shared areas such as people and technology platforms. The new IT Strategic Plan leverages on innovation to guarantee sustainability and resilience for the business over the long term and to address the issues posed by the transformation of the banking sector, our clients’ new needs, the regulatory requirements and the challenges posed by cyber-security as effectively as possible.

We have also entered into an important partnership with Founders Factory, a London-based venture studio and early-stage startup accelerator, which aims to invest €12m over the next 5Y (in addition to the IT Plan’s €230m investment) in the acceleration of 25 fintech startups and the establishment of ten startups from scratch, in accordance with the objectives outlined in the 2023-26 IT Plan.

Through this roadmap we will have the benefit of a significant upgrade in our technology ecosystem, and of distinctive solutions relative to the market, due to the:

• Creation of new applications;
• Transformation of existing systems, through the systematic adoption of innovative technologies and cloud computing solutions;
• Partnership with some of the most innovative players in the financial market, such as bigtechs and fintechs, to help accelerate our innovation programmes.

Among the main areas covered by the IT Plan, particular focus has been placed on:

• Enhancing the Group’s offering versus its clients, using cutting-edge solutions able to offer clients a more effective and consistent user experience across all channels (e.g. simplified onboarding, access to services 24/7, bespoke product offering)
• Supporting the salesforce and Operations teams, through the use of automation and Artificial Intelligence solutions, to maximize the efficiency and scalability of commercial activities while at the same time reducing the cost to serve. For the Wealth Management division in particular, the development of a Digital Platform will be completed, harmonized at Group level, which, by adopting new technologies and disruptive approaches, will maximize the synergies between divisions and make the investments more effective.
• Implement cross-divisional initiatives within the Group, with the objective of accelerating the systematic adoption of cloud computing solutions, and of strengthening the measures and solutions put in place to ensure cyber-security. Of these initiatives, the One Data Platform has particular importance as it entails developing the Group’s data architecture with a view to unlocking maximum value from the business data and enhancing our predictive and real-time analytical capabilities, while at the same time streamlining our governance processes.

Cross-divisional initiatives to support this transformation process include the following:

• Journey to Cloud, which is central to digitalizing and developing the Group’s systems, and proactively strengthening our cyber-security systems by design;
• Investments in staff, with a plan that involves recruiting talented new people as well as targeted upskilling and reskilling programmes for existing staff in new technologies.

All the investment choices are made based on the conviction that technology and digitalization will be crucial to provide services of the highest quality.

The financial services sector is undergoing a profound transformation, involving new ways of interacting with clients and of providing them with services, not to mention the new regulatory challenges posed.

The market trends require further acceleration along the path to innovation already taken by the Mediobanca Group. We are witnessing:

• The continuing adoption of consumer trends and habits that represent a complete break with even the recent past
• The advance of new technologies in many sectors, ranging from daily life to the financial sector
• The spread of virtual worlds, blockchain technologies, and the need to be connected at all times
• The increasing focus on digital security and privacy
• The growing use of robotics and artificial intelligence.

We have also seen new global and exclusively digital players enter the market, including those from non-financial sectors, driving a profound change in the competitive scenario, and requiring a response that features a distinctive approach to structuring product and service offering.

In order to maintain our leading role and market position over the long term, the  Mediobanca Group must anticipate the trends and ideas that will create the expectations of the future and will transform our current way of doing business.

In recent years we have been working hard to lay the technological and cultural foundations to allow innovation to change our business models, make our problem-solving more effective, and improve delivery of our objectives.

For example, we have identified cloud computing as one of the most important drivers of digital transformation and as an enabler of systems development. The objective is to move from a primarily “on premise” situation to a “hybrid cloud” solution, thus streamlining the existing processes, and leveraging all the distinctive advantages offered by cloud-based solutions (e.g. use of on-demand processing capacity, networking and security solutions, without infrastructure costs and without initial outlays).

Within the Italian banking scenario, we were one of the first banks to adopt cloud-based services as an area of strategic importance (using CRM Salesforce in Mediobanca Premier, and Service Now as an IT service support and management system), and have confirmed our role as pioneers in this sense by developing a full update of the Flexcube core banking platform using the public cloud, in partnership with Oracle.

We are consistently investing funds to consolidate and develop our synthesis systems and information governance, and to improve our data quality, by providing instruments and processes to ensure consistency, thoroughness, integrity and reliability of data at both Group and Legal Entity levels.