Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank and Lloyds Bank prioritized efficiency in the first half of the year by leaning into technology.

Banco Santander continued to implement its One Transformation plan, a common operating business model, across retail and commercial banking, Chief Executive Hector Grisi said during today’s earnings call. Through the efficiency plan, the bank has eliminated 5%, or 400, products in 2023, is progressing in its digital self-service capabilities, and is digitizing its onboarding process.

“To better serve our customers and to improve efficiency and increase the size and profitability, we are delivering across the three pillars of One Transformation,” Grisi said.

Similarly, Lloyds is “focused on driving revenue growth through diversification, strengthening cost and capital efficiency, and maximizing the potential of our people, technology and data,” Lloyds Chief Executive Charlie Nunn said today.

Deutsche Bank, too, is turning to operations efficiencies and raised its ambition for efficiencies from $2.2 billion to $2.8 billion, Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Christian Sewing said. “We anticipate $332 million of savings by 2025.”

Deutsche Bank’s savings outlook will rely on the success of its migration of 12 million Postbank clients into its tech platform. Deutsche Bank acquired Postbank in 2019 and is in the final phases of integration, Sewing said.

Tech spend

Operating costs increased at the three banks:

• Deutsche Bank: Noninterest expenses grew 8% year over year to $12.3 billion.
• Lloyds Bank: Operating costs $5.7 billion, up 6% YoY. The bank is on track to report operating costs of $11.7 billion in 2023.
• Banco Santander: Operating costs grew 9% YoY to $13.8 billion, which includes a 7.4% increase in information and technology spending, taking it to $1.3 billion.

Tech talent

During the first half of the year, Lloyds focused on tech talent acquisition, according to its earnings supplement.

“We’re increasing the number of new hires in both technology and data as we continue to improve our ways of working to better unlock the potential of our people,” Nunn said.

Lloyds hired 1,000 people in technology and data roles during the period, according to its earnings presentation.

Deutsche Bank increased its headcount 12% YoY to 23,314, according to the earnings supplement. The bank did not break out what roles those employees filled.

Editor’s note: All figures have been converted to USD.