AI cuts some Deutsche Bank corporate lending decisions from weeks to minutes

The bank’s new technology chief told Reuters that decision times for larger clients have also been shortened from months to weeks

Artificial intelligence has helped Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) cut the time needed to make decisions on some small corporate loans from weeks to minutes. This was stated by the bank’s new technology chief, Marie-Jeanne Deverdun, in an interview with Reuters.

Deverdun, who joined the bank’s management board this year, said that a project launched in the summer has also reduced the time spent on some lending decisions for multinational corporations from months to weeks.

“For smaller corporates with less complex structures and legal setups, we are talking about somewhere between weeks and minutes,” she said in the interview.

Deverdun noted that Deutsche Bank is preparing for a future in which its AI agents will interact directly with clients’ own agents. This comes as lenders are drawn into a debate among technology leaders about whether AI development is moving too fast.

“We are following this debate closely. These are very valid concerns, and obviously managing cyber risk is my number one priority,” she said.

She added that the bank is spending significant resources and budget to keep protecting itself against new technologies and threats.

Deverdun said the bank has built an in-house AI platform called ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, a pioneer of computing, to develop, monitor and manage AI agents. According to her, the platform allows the bank to oversee agent activity, manage risks and switch between AI models as the technology evolves.

“We are already preparing for an agentic economy in which our agents interact with our clients’ agents with clear accountability and proper oversight,” she added.

Germany’s largest lender, Deutsche Bank, plans to allocate more than €2.5 billion ($2.80 billion) to technology spending between 2026 and 2028. By comparison, JPMorgan has set a budget of $20 billion for 2026.

Banks hope AI will cut costs and boost productivity. Britain’s Barclays said last week that it will cut about 5,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, this year because of its use of the technology. Citigroup said AI products are being developed at a lower cost and up to 40% faster.

Meanwhile, major U.S. banks have begun blocking third-party AI agents from operating inside customer accounts, in response to concerns that sophisticated AI agents could harm the banking system and the institutions entrusted with people’s wealth. As lenders try to adopt the technology, they are balancing questions about revenue and security threats, while bank regulators are stepping up efforts to limit growing AI risk.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has said he wants to make the bank “truly AI-driven”. His predecessor said in 2015 that the bank’s systems were “messy, difficult and often simply incompatible with each other”.

After the war in Ukraine began, the bank had to relocate its technology staff out of Russia. Despite some recent progress, it is still upgrading a number of its platforms.