Euroclear enters into 7-year strategic partnership with Microsoft harnessing cloud, data and AI

Euroclear enters into 7-year strategic partnership with Microsoft harnessing cloud, data and AI.

Brussels, 30 January 2025 – Euroclear has announced today a 7-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to transform Euroclear clients’ experience and drive new opportunities for growth.

The partnership further strengthens Euroclear’s business ecosystem and technology infrastructure by leveraging Microsoft’s leading technology, expertise and cloud services. This will enhance Euroclear’s ability to create value for all market participants and unlock new opportunities at the core of the capital markets ecosystem. Microsoft will support Euroclear’s strategic ambition in key growth areas like funds and client experience as well as its long-term vision to evolve into a Digital and Data-Enabled Financial Market Infrastructure.

By joining forces with Microsoft, Euroclear will be able to pioneer innovative digital and data-centric initiatives, which will foster collaboration with other industry participants to create shared solutions based on standardised and compatible technologies that bring the best value to industry service providers but also to issuers and investors alike.

Valérie Urbain, CEO of Euroclear, said: “Technology is rapidly transforming financial market infrastructures. Harnessing the latest developments in cloud, AI and analytics is a critical enabler of Euroclear’s strategy and a driver of innovation, new business and resilience. Microsoft’s technology leadership and understanding of financial markets make it an ideal strategic partner for the next stage in our journey. This mutually beneficial relationship greatly accelerates our ambitions and should bring us much closer to clients.”

“Our partnership with Euroclear combines their extensive financial ecosystem—connecting more than 2,000 financial institutions—with the trust and scalability of the Microsoft Cloud including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Copilot, Azure AI, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Teams,” said Ralph Haupter, President, EMEA at Microsoft. “Together, we are enabling a shift from traditional sequential workflows to an ecosystem-centric capital markets model. This transformation will empower financial institutions to reimagine how they interact, analyse data, and deliver insights to end users, driving efficiency and innovation across the industry.”

The adoption of Microsoft’s cutting-edge technologies like cloud (which in turn is a platform for scalable transformation) and generative AI will streamline platform development and operations. The use of Microsoft’s flexible cloud capacity and automated solutions for rapid disaster recovery and business continuity will further improve Euroclear’s resilience and security.

The partnership’s initial focus has been established and will gradually evolve to co-develop additional digital and data initiatives and scale modernisation efforts. The initial scope for 2025 will focus on:

• Developing a financial data sharing ecosystem: Designing a secure platform to enable collaboration and data sharing, leveraging Microsoft’s secure identity, confidential data sharing and cross-collaboration capabilities.
• Transforming Euroclear’s global funds offering, Euroclear FundsPlace: Enhancing the customer experience with AI-driven insights, streamlined operations, and increased efficiencies for market participants.
• Modernising customer engagement: Establishing a unified platform to enhance Euroclear’s customer interactions and streamline operations across all customer-facing business lines.
• Strengthening market infrastructure: Building next-generation, secure financial infrastructure with built-in compliance, security, and reliability to support mission-critical workloads.

The partnership is sponsored by senior executives from both organisations, representing both IT and business perspectives, to ensure the successful development of the partnership and the delivery of value for our clients and ecosystem partners.