Microsoft is officially releasing its financial service-specific cloud offering, with a general launch planned for November 1, according to a company industry blog post.
Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is the tech giant’s response to consumer demand for industry-specific, cloud-driven solution which offers privacy, security and regulatory compliance.
The cloud service will offer integrations with Microsoft’s other core products, including Microsoft Azure, 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, according to the post by Microsoft corporate vice president of worldwide financial services Bill Borden.
Virgin Money UK was announced as an early user of the service, with the company’s chief digital and innovation officer Fraser Ingram saying, “At Virgin Money UK we are always looking at ways to innovate and deliver a world class, digital customer experience.”
“We see Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services accelerating that journey of digitizing our customer experience, while enabling us to scale and grow,” Fraser stated in a Microsoft industry blog post.
Borden says that the platform’s industry data model enables Microsoft’s partners to extend the value of the platform with additional solutions, allowing organizations to align its capabilities to business and operational needs with quick deployment.
Microsoft has also lined up additional service partners, including Accenture, Finastra and Zafin. The company also recently introduced its newest spend management solution within the Microsoft ecosystem, welcoming Teampay as the first and only expense technology integrated into Microsoft Teams, with additional Dynamic 365 Business Central and Finance & Operations syncs.
Services included in the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services’ platform include a unified customer profile, customer onboarding tools, banking customer engagement services and a collaboration manager that enables automation and collaboration across front- and back-end office workers.
The model also provides account protection and purchase protection, which Microsoft says is important given a study by Javelin Strategy & Research finding fraud losses climbed to $56 billion in 2020.
In other recent fintech news, Google announced it is abandoning plans to offer Plex bank accounts to users. Unicorn Chargebee also acquired RevLock to amplify automated revenue recognition.