Our goal is to move away from legacy infrastructure while ensuring regulatory adherence: Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Deutsche Bank India

In an era of rapid technological evolution, Deutsche Bank is actively embracing automation, AI, and cloud transformation to stay ahead in the financial sector. In a brief interaction with Express Computer, Dilipkumar Khandelwal, CEO of Deutsche Bank India, Global CIO of Corporate Functions, and Head of Global Technology Centres, sheds light on the bank’s modernisation journey.

He discusses the bank’s strategic shift from legacy systems to the public cloud, the integration of AI, including the rise of GenAI, and the challenges of ensuring data security and compliance in a highly regulated industry. Khandelwal also shares insights on how Deutsche Bank is leveraging India’s vast talent pool, emphasising the need to move beyond the traditional GCC model and positioning India as a key player in global decision-making.

Deutsche Bank has been a significant player in the global financial landscape for decades, navigating through various technological transformations. Could you elaborate on how the automation journey has evolved at Deutsche Bank over the years?

I think one of the biggest challenges we faced in the past five to seven years, without going too far back, was dealing with our legacy landscape. Operating in the financial sector means having systems that have been in place for a significant period, many of which are duplicated. One of our major initiatives has been modernising this landscape and transitioning to the public cloud. That’s why we entered into a large-scale partnership with a hyperscaler to support us in this journey.

This partnership was truly collaborative, we wanted a partner who understood our challenges and could work alongside us. We bring financial expertise, they bring technological expertise, and together, we work towards a solution. The goal has been to move away from legacy infrastructure to the public cloud, all while acknowledging that regulations and compliance requirements will continue to evolve. This transition has led us to adopt a hybrid architecture, where on-demand data moves to the public cloud while ensuring regulatory adherence.

The second major focus for us has been building strong in-house capabilities to differentiate ourselves from competitors. We have invested significantly in large engineering centres, with India being a key hub. Over the past decade, we have grown this centre to around 8,000 people, exponentially increasing from 2,000-3,000 in the last five years. The reason behind this expansion is that having robust engineering capabilities allows us to develop new products and solutions internally. Initially, we built these capabilities for our own use, but now we are showcasing them more broadly.

Moreover, transitioning to the public cloud lays a strong foundation for leveraging emerging technologies like AI. When operating on a hyperscaler, we gain access to inherent AI capabilities, models, and the associated data, which we can effectively utilise. This modernisation effort not only enhances our current infrastructure but also positions us for future innovation.

Gen AI appears to be creating significant buzz across industries, including Deutsche Bank. While AI has been part of your operations for years, what unique challenges and opportunities does GenAI bring to the financial sector? How is Deutsche Bank preparing to leverage it responsibly, especially in terms of data sensitivity and client-facing applications?

So, as I mentioned with a few examples earlier, I won’t repeat those. But the buzz around GenAI isn’t just within Deutsche Bank, it’s everywhere. We are conducting numerous pilots and extensive testing. However, this topic isn’t entirely new to us. While GenAI has recently become a major trend, if you look back five to seven years, we were already using machine learning algorithms extensively.

We’ve leveraged AI in private banking to provide hyper-personalised attention to our clients. We’ve used it in our back-end operations for customer service centres, fraud detection, and even in corporate banking to create more meaningful client interactions. AI itself is not new to the industry, the real disruption across sectors is happening with GenAI.

That said, in the financial industry, particularly in banking, data sensitivity is a critical concern. While we actively explore and leverage GenAI, we are also highly cautious about maintaining the right control environment and ensuring proper traceability. That’s why we are making significant investments in building a strong foundational framework.

As you can imagine, everything depends on the data, what you input and what you get in return. We are extremely mindful of the data we use and the outputs generated. Our primary focus is to establish a robust foundation before deploying GenAI, particularly for client-facing applications, to ensure security, compliance, and reliability.

In the highly regulated banking sector, how is Deutsche Bank balancing cybersecurity and compliance mandates, such as GDPR and India’s DPDP Act? What strategies are in place to ensure data security across global operations?

There are two key aspects to consider here. When we talk about being prepared on the control side, it means strengthening cybersecurity, risk control, and risk appetite, among other things. We faced a similar challenge five years ago when working with Google on our move to the public cloud. A significant amount of effort went into ensuring that our foundational security controls were in place. From a regulatory standpoint, we had to ensure that the controls satisfied compliance requirements and that sensitive information remained protected.

At the same time, this is not a static process. New countries introduce new regulations and laws, so adaptability is key. A considerable amount of work goes into ensuring compliance with financial regulations, and that’s why people often feel that the financial sector isn’t moving as fast as other industries. However, in banking, security must always come first before any technological shift can happen.

India is home to over 500 GCCs, employing more than 1.5 million people. What strategies does your organisation employ to nurture and retain this talent, ensuring sustainable growth and engagement within the workforce?

I think India needs to look beyond just the GCC model because the talent here is incredibly hungry and ready to take on greater responsibilities. It operates at a completely different level. In fact, I feel the term “GCC” itself carries a slightly limiting connotation. Wherever an organisation operates, India should be at the heart of the discussion, not just a support function.

India is more than ready for this shift. It’s not just about the number of people you hire or the scale of operations, it’s about the quality of work being driven. The real question is whether you have the right architects, product owners, project managers, and senior leaders actively shaping key initiatives, or not. Being an integral part of the larger global ecosystem is far more important than just being a delivery centre.

GCCs need to be mindful that they don’t position themselves as mere captive units or separate entities. Instead, they should fully integrate with their parent organisations, contributing strategically rather than being seen as operational extensions.