Deutsche Bank speeds corporate loan decisions with AI push

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Deutsche Bank AI loan process

Highlights

Deutsche Bank's new AI tools cut lending decisions for small corporate borrowers from weeks to minutes and multinationals from months to weeks.
Deutsche Bank will spend over 2.5 billion euros on technology between 2026 and 2028 to boost AI and cyber risk management, compared to JPMorgan's $20 billion 2026 tech budget.
Banks sector-wide use AI for efficiency, with Barclays cutting 5,000 jobs this year and Citigroup developing products up to 40% faster at lower cost.

AI rollout accelerates lending workflow

As reported by Reuters, Marie-Jeanne Deverdun, Deutsche Bank's chief technology executive and a member of its management board, said the bank's new AI tools are materially speeding up parts of its corporate lending process.

In an interview, Deverdun said smaller corporate borrowers, which tend to have less complex legal structures, can now receive some lending decisions in minutes rather than weeks. She added that for some multinational corporations, the same technology is cutting timelines from months to weeks.

Deverdun also said Deutsche Bank has built an internal AI platform called ADA, named after computing pioneer Ada Lovelace, to develop, monitor and control AI agents. The platform allows the bank to oversee agent activity, manage risk and switch between AI models as the technology evolves.

She said the bank is preparing for an "agentic economy" in which its AI agents interact directly with clients' agents, while keeping accountability and controls in place.

Risk controls and industry competition intensify

The rollout comes as banking regulators step up efforts to contain AI-related risks while lenders race to deploy the technology without undermining security or returns. Deverdun said Deutsche Bank is watching the broader debate over the pace of AI development carefully and that cyber risk management remains her top priority.

She said the bank is devoting significant resources and budget to protect itself from new technology threats. Deutsche Bank plans more than 2.5 billion euros in technology spending between 2026 and 2028, compared with JPMorgan's 2026 technology budget of $20 billion.

Banks across the sector are seeking to use AI to trim costs and lift productivity. Barclays said last week it is cutting around 5,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, this year as it uses the technology, while Citigroup has said AI is developing products at lower cost and up to 40% faster.

Major U.S. banks have also begun blocking third-party AI agents from operating inside customer accounts because of concerns that increasingly sophisticated systems could damage the banking system and trusted financial institutions. Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has said he wants to turn the lender into a truly AI-powered bank as it continues to streamline legacy technology platforms.

Our earlier article on the Bank of England’s push for “bare metal” recovery planning explained why regulators want banks to be able to restore critical services even if core technology is compromised. We noted that AI is increasing the scale and complexity of cyber attacks, prompting supervisors to demand deeper resilience and credible end-to-end recovery options across the financial system.

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