India is one of our four key technology centers: Deutsche’s Dilipkumar Khandelwal

India is at the center of the German-based Deutsche Bank technology transformation, said the company spokesperson during its flagship ‘Bank on Tech’ event in Bengaluru. At the event, the senior leadership of the bank iterated that the company will continue to invest in its workforce through reskilling and upskilling initiatives. 

In an interaction with TechCircle on the sidelines of the event, Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Global CIO and CEO of Deutsche India revealed that India is one of the key technology centers for the company. Deutsche Bank has established major engineering hubs in four strategic locations: Bengaluru and Pune in India, Bucharest in Europe, Berlin in Germany, and Cary in the US. Out of the 23,000 employees in India, 8,000 are dedicated engineering professionals.

“Our goal was to consolidate high-cost satellite locations into these technology hubs, building robust internal engineering capabilities. We set an ambitious target to have 70% of our technology workforce operating out of these centers. Today, we’ve achieved that goal, with 70% of our team now based in these tech hubs. This is a remarkable transformation compared to five years ago when the distribution was nearly the opposite,” he added.

The India team is working across Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Generative AI. These advancements are central to Deutsche Bank’s vision of becoming a digital-first, data-secure, and customer-centric bank, the company said in a statement. 

Notably, in November 2024, the bank announced that it would be investing ₹5,113 crore (€571 million) in its India branch operations. This investment is expected to support its growth plans in India, targeting key sectors like digital transformation and sustainable finance.

Khandelwal, who has been with Deutsche for over five years now, said that the initial focus was to transition from legacy infrastructure to cutting-edge public infrastructure. Towards this, the company has extensively worked with Google, its long-standing tech partners. “Over the past five years, we've been streamlining our IT landscape, identifying the desired target state, and ultimately moving towards a robust public infrastructure.”

Going forward, the team is looking at catering to evolving customers' expectations and the demand for tailored solutions. To meet these evolving needs, the team is developing products that are built natively on cloud platforms.

“This journey of modernisation has been largely successful, though it required considerable effort upfront. Operating in a regulated industry demanded rigorous controls and thorough preparation before launching each component. Despite the challenges, I am particularly proud of our initiative to transform our legacy landscape and modernise our public infrastructure,” he concluded.