Digital Agenda

The Group’s IT Strategic Plan for the 2023-26 period consists of some 25 transformation programmes, comprising more than 300 project initiatives, for a total outlay of €230m over a three-year time horizon, an increase of 25% compared to the annual average for the previous three-year Strategic Plan.

The financial services industry has been facing new challenges in recent years, in terms of transformation and innovation. With the objective of seizing new opportunities and responding effectively to market expectations, the Group has developed a “Digital Agenda”, an essential pillar of the 2023-26 Strategic Plan, which provides for an organic transformation process which is able to operate:

• Vertically, within the business divisions;
• Horizontally across the divisions in common areas, such as People and Technology Platforms, that represent the foundations on which the Group’s distinctive positioning will be consolidated.

The initiatives provided for in our three-year roadmap aim to significantly upgrade the Group’s technology ecosystem, through the development of distinctive solutions compared to those of the market, and through the transformation of existing systems.

The adoption of innovative paradigms, such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, and partnerships with some of the leading national and international market, such as bigtechs and fintechs, will be central to the IT strategy as a driver to accelerate the innovation projects included in the Strategic Plan.

The Group’s strong digital acceleration serves primarily to enhance our offering versus our clients (products and channels), through innovative solutions that will enable us to offer a more effective and consistent user experience across all channels.

A substantial portion of the investments is earmarked for the development of digital platforms to support the salesforce and operations units, with the objective, through the adoption of automation and AI solutions, of maximizing the efficiency and scalability of our 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 harmonized at Group level will be completed. This, through the adoption of new technologies and disruptive approaches, will maximize synergies between divisions and will make the investments more effective.

To facilitate and support the strong digital acceleration more effectively, the Strategic Plan also provides for cross-divisional initiatives at Group level, to accelerate the systematic adoption of cloud computing solutions, and to strengthen the measures and solutions put in place to bolster cyber-security. Among the cross-divisional objectives, particular importance has been given to the One Data Platform programme, which aims to develop the Group’s data architecture with a view to unlocking maximum value from the business data and enhancing predictive and real-time analytics capabilities, while at the same time streamlining the governance processes.

Innovation and Digital

In order to meet the changes in our clients’ expectations and to address developments in our core businesses, the 2023-26 Strategic Plan “One Brand-One Culture” includes what we have called our Digital Agenda, a three-year roadmap intended to significantly upgrade the Group’s technology ecosystem.

Investments in innovation

The 2023-26 Strategic Plan provides for an investment of €230m, to accelerate our digitalization processes and to adopt new technologies.

Innovation for clients

It is vital for banks to provide a quality experience for their clients, to enable business to grow and to strengthen relationships with customers.

New frontiers in technology

Consistent monitoring of trends in technology is a fundamental prerequisite for pursuit of an innovation strategy over the medium and long term.