Microsoft has multiple cloud verticals covering various domains including sustainability, non-profit, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. The company will soon be adding Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services to this list, following a public preview earlier this year.
This new cloud vertical is built on the principles of interoperability, privacy, security, and regulatory compliance, and will enable organizations to innovate while keeping sustainability in mind. All of this is made possible by integrating Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform in a unified data model and offering customized capabilities on top for the financial services industry to utilize. For example, retail banks will be able to leverage certain unique features to drive customer growth and loyalty, and enhance employee experience. Other capabilities include unified customer profiles, improvements and automation when it comes to business-to-consumer communications, and reduction in churn and time to resolution.
On the security front, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services will combat fraud using capabilities such as account protection and purchase protection. Security and regulatory compliance will be facilitated by risk assurance and support, as well as regulatory compliance assessments.
Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Financial Services, Bill Borden, went on to say that:
Microsoft’s growing ecosystem of partners extends the robust capabilities of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. Our partners are dedicated to better serving customers by helping provide more integrated solutions that reduce risk across the ecosystem, identify new opportunities for innovation, and decrease time to market.
[...] I would like to thank the financial services organizations, Microsoft partners, and other industry leaders who helped provide impactful guidance on how we can best help the industry in its digital path forward. We believe Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services has the foundation needed to help financial institutions accelerate innovation for responsible growth, and it offers the right set of capabilities for retail banking to meet their most pressing needs for enhancing customer and employee experiences, combatting financial crime, and managing security and compliance.
Microsoft plans to share more details about the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services in a digital forum on October 26. The vertical will become generally available on November 1.
