Belgium financial services company Euroclear has signed a seven-year cloud deal with Microsoft.
Euroclear will use Microsoft's technology and cloud services to strengthen its technology infrastructure.
During the first year of the agreement, Euroclear will develop a financial data-sharing platform, bring AI into its Euroclear FundsPlace to improve customer experience, as well as work to strengthen Euroclear's infrastructure backbone.
Valérie Urbain, CEO of Euroclear, said: "Technology is rapidly transforming financial market infrastructures. Harnessing the latest developments in cloud, AI, and analytics is a critical enabler of Euroclear’s strategy and a driver of innovation and new business without compromising resilience. Microsoft’s technology leadership and understanding of financial markets make it an ideal strategic partner for the next stage in our journey. This mutually beneficial relationship greatly accelerates our ambitions and should bring us much closer to clients."
"Our partnership with Euroclear combines their extensive financial ecosystem—connecting more than 2,000 financial institutions—with the trust and scalability of the Microsoft Cloud including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Copilot, Azure AI, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Teams," said Ralph Haupter, president, EMEA at Microsoft.
"Together, we are enabling a shift from traditional sequential workflows to an ecosystem-centric capital markets model. This transformation will empower financial institutions to reimagine how they interact, analyze data, and deliver insights to end users, driving efficiency and innovation across the industry."
Euroclear was founded in 1968 as part of J.P. Morgan & Co. The company specializes in the clearing and settlement of securities transactions. According to a report from the International Monetary Fund, as of December 2023, Euroclear operates in three data centers, "two of which are synchronously mirrored in real-time, while the third receives data asynchronously and is meant to ensure continued operations in case of a regional disaster." The third data center was launched in 2008.
DCD has contacted Euroclear for more information about its data centers, and whether the new Microsoft partnership is indicative of a planned cloud migration.
