CIBC, a leading North American financial institution, and Thought Machine, the cloud-native core banking technology company, today announced a major multi-year core banking partnership. CIBC will adopt Thought Machine’s Vault Core platform as the foundation to modernise its retail banking technology, making it easier to rapidly develop and deploy simpler, faster, and more personalised banking experiences across Canada.
CIBC has marked an early, high-speed milestone on Vault Core: building and piloting The Simplii Account™ in less than a year. As the first of many offerings planned for the platform, the launch establishes CIBC as the first large Canadian bank live on Vault Core and validates its ability to modernise products at pace.
To reinforce its strategic commitment, CIBC co-led Thought Machine’s Series E funding round earlier this year with a £30 million investment, aligning capital investment directly with its enterprise technology strategy.
By adopting Vault Core, CIBC equips its internal product and engineering teams to build, test, and launch products directly on a highly scalable, cloud-native engine. This approach replaces legacy, batch-oriented systems that constrain speed and flexibility, giving CIBC teams total control over their technology destination. Key innovations debuting on The Simplii Account™ include customisable folders and automated savings goals, a first among Canadian direct-to-consumer banks, allowing clients to organise spending, bills, and savings directly within their mobile app in seconds.
Beyond powering Simplii Financial’s digital evolution, this pilot serves as the operational proof point for CIBC’s multi-year technology strategy. Moving forward, CIBC plans to leverage this cloud-native foundation to progressively modernise its retail core operations, establishing a real-time framework for advanced capabilities, including real-time payments.
"Everyday Banking solutions should make life easier and allow each client to manage their finances in a simple, personalized way," says Hratch Panossian, Senior Executive Vice-President, Personal and Business Banking, CIBC. "This technology will enable CIBC to do more than just build modern banking solutions. It reflects our commitment to becoming a leader in technology, radically shifting how we innovate and raising the bar for banking in Canada."
"CIBC is proving that the world’s largest banks can move at speed when equipped with the right technology and ways of working," said Paul Taylor, Founder and CEO of Thought Machine. "Vault Core doesn't simply modernise the technology behind banking, it gives CIBC the foundation to transform what banking can deliver for Canadians. We are proud to welcome CIBC both as a strategic partner and as an investor as we expand across their retail operations."
With this live rollout, CIBC joins an elite cohort of more than 20 large-scale global and national banks, including Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, and Standard Chartered, that rely on Thought Machine’s Vault Core to replace aging legacy systems and power next-generation banking. Thought Machine is the leading next-generation core banking provider within this segment.
