AI cuts some Deutsche Bank corporate loan decisions to minutes

By Tom Sims and Hakan Ersen

FRANKFURT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - AI is helping Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE cut decisions for some smaller corporate lending from weeks to just minutes, its new technology chief Marie-Jeanne Deverdun told Reuters.

The project, which went live in the summer, also reduces the time taken to make some lending decisions for multinational corporations from months to weeks, said Deverdun, who joined Deutsche Bank's management board this year.

"For smaller corporates, which are less complicated in their setup and their legal structure, we're talking weeks to minutes," Deverdun said in an interview.

Deverdun said Deutsche Bank is also preparing for a future when its AI agents will interact directly with clients' own agents, as lenders are drawn into the debate among technology leaders over whether AI development is moving too fast.

"We are watching that debate carefully. These are very valid concerns, and, obviously, the management of cyber risk is my number one priority," she said.

"We're spending a lot of resources and budget to continue to protect the bank from those new technologies and threats," she added.

Banking regulators are stepping up efforts to contain growing AI risk as lenders race to deploy the technology while balancing questions over returns and security threats.

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Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, plans more than €2.5 billion ($2.80 billion) in tech spending between 2026 and 2028. By comparison, JPMorgan is budgeting $20 billion for 2026.

Banks hope AI will trim costs and boost productivity.

Britain's Barclays said last week it was cutting around 5,000 jobs or 5% of its workforce this year as it uses the technology. Citigroup has said AI was now developing products at lower cost and up to 40% faster.

Major US banks, meanwhile, 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 trusted to hold people's wealth.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has said he wants to make Deutsche "a truly AI-powered bank" after his predecessor said in 2015 its systems were "disjointed, cumbersome and far too often just plain incompatible".

After the Ukraine war began, Deutsche Bank had to move its tech staff out of Russia and it is still streamlining an array of platforms, although it has cited some recent progress.

Deverdun said Deutsche Bank had built an internal AI platform known as ADA, named after computing pioneer Ada Lovelace, to develop, monitor and control AI agents.

ADA allows the bank to oversee agent activity, manage risk and switch between AI models as technology evolves, she said.

"We're already preparing for an agentic economy where our agents interact with the agents of our clients with clear accountability and the right controls," she added.

($1 = 0.8937 euros)