Deutsche Bank Joins Competitors To Open NYC Innovation Hub

Deutsche Bank, the Wall Street investment firm, announced Tuesday (March 21) the launch of an innovation lab in New York City.

According to a report in The American Banker, Deutsche Bank is joining a growing list of big international banks that are trying to entice FinTech companies with trendy offices located in Silicon Alley. The report noted Barclays opened Rise, a loft space in the Flatiron District of New York City, in July 2015 to court FinTechs, while BNP Paribas followed suit with a similar office in New York City in September. Accenture and Deloitte, recently opened FinTech innovation labs in New York as well, reported American Banker. The goal of the new innovation centers is to bring new ideas and technology to what the banks are doing already. The banks are also looking to hire the FinTech startups’ employees, invest them or acquire the startups.

At Deutsche’s new lab, the focus will be on artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity, noted the report. It’s the fourth lab the bank has opened in the last year-and-a-half, with the other three located in Silicon Valley, London and Berlin. Elly Hardwick, head of innovation at Deutsche Bank, told American Banker the labs have already developed technology the bank has used such as software to help credit risk analysts run different scenarios at a faster pace. Another software aids employees with managing risk, while a third improves the look with its customer-facing app.

“We always work in partnership with business,” Hardwick said in the report. “It’s not our mandate to go out and find technologies for which there is no customer within the bank. If we haven’t found a docking point within the bank for a technology, then we haven’t done our job.”