The migration of its own IT systems and client data to foreign cloud storage facilities, which PrivatBank has carried out for the sake of customer security, is a significant digital solution in the Ukrainian banking market. Therefore, experts of the leading British financial publication Euromoney named PrivatBank the best bank for digital solutions in the annual Awards for Excellence 2023 rating.
According to the publication’s experts, since the first days of the war, security and data management have become a critical task for Ukrainian banks, and the financial sector has faced new challenges due to Russian air strikes on energy infrastructure. PrivatBank paid special attention to protecting customer data, funds, and uninterrupted access to accounts and cash and all other banking services. To this end, it has moved its IT systems from traditional physical data centers to cloud-based solutions, reducing its dependence on physical equipment.
“When Russian missiles hit 200 meters from our data center at the beginning of the war in February 2022, we knew that moving our operations to a cloud-based solution was the only way to secure our banking operations and protect our clients’ banking activities,” says Mariusz Kaczmarek, PrivatBank’s Deputy Chairman of the Board for IT and Operations.
According to him, it was a very large-scale work. After all, the bank moved 3,500 servers and more than 270 critical applications to a secure cloud environment.
“We secured and uploaded more than 6 petabytes of customer and transaction data to the cloud. And all this in less than 45 days. Like any other PrivatBank client, I felt financially secure then. It is important to note that by the end of October 2022, the bank had transferred the rest of its services and solutions to the cloud,” Kaczmarek adds.
Euromoney also noted the importance of PrivatBank’s technological and innovative solutions, which have enabled all Ukrainians who cannot get to regular branches to open digital cards and receive services remotely. Thanks to its convenient digital payment channels, PrivatBank has also become a key player in the international remittance market in Ukraine, with the number of international transfers received through the bank increasing by 16% since the beginning of the war.
Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence program recognizes the best banks in global, regional and local markets that have achieved outstanding success in developing their core banking operations over the past 12 months.
