Lombard Odier partners with MongoDB for AI tech upgrade

MongoDB and Lombard Odier have partnered to modernise the Swiss bank's core banking technology with the use of generative AI.

The collaboration between MongoDB and Lombard Odier aims to enhance the bank's technological systems and reduce the complexity involved in modernising its applications. This initiative is part of Lombard Odier's GX Program, launched in 2020, which seeks to modernise the bank's banking application architecture over a seven-year period.

By adopting MongoDB as their data platform, Lombard Odier has accelerated the migration of applications from legacy relational databases. With the use of generative AI, the bank was able to migrate code 50 to 60 times faster than before and automate repetitive tasks to significantly cut down project times. The bank has been building its technology transformation on a decade-long relationship with MongoDB.

Geoffroy De Ridder, Head of Technology and Operations at Lombard Odier, said, "To enhance Lombard Odier's business strategy, we developed a technology platform that draws on the latest technological innovations to facilitate employees' day-to-day work, and provide clients with individualised investment perspectives. We chose MongoDB because it offers us a cloud-agnostic database platform and an AI modernisation approach, which helps to automate time-consuming tasks, accelerate the upgrade of existing applications, and migrate them at a faster rate than ever before. Having up to date technology has made a big impact on our employees and customers while proving to be fast, cost-effective, and reducing maintenance overheads."

Further developments included modernising multiple applications, such as Lombard Odier's "Publications" marketing application, using generative AI to accelerate code migration. These tools were also used during regression testing, automating the generation of new code.

Sahir Azam, Chief Product Officer at MongoDB, commented, "Financial institutions with as much history as Lombard Odier undoubtedly have large, complex legacy systems that have been supporting the business for decades. However, it is important for organisations to constantly evaluate these systems to understand if they are still serving their best interest today, and for the future. This can be a daunting task, but we are proud to have worked through this with Lombard Odier to prove that it is possible, and can actually be quite simple with the right technology. The transformation work Lombard Odier has done sets them up to take advantage of new, cutting-edge technologies which improve customer experience immensely."

The initiative also included the construction of a Modernisation Factory, co-built by MongoDB, to mitigate the typical challenges associated with legacy system transformations such as cost, time, and risk. This project illustrates a successful collaboration, highlighting the potential benefits of using generative AI in banking technology modernisation.