Finastra has expanded its partnership with NTT Data to enhance its Lending Cloud Service for financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

NTT Data will now manage the application lifecycle, aiming to improve scalability and operational efficiency.

The joint solution will also include tools for monitoring and meeting service-level commitments.

Finastra said the move is significant for the Asia-Pacific region, where countries such as Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Singapore are increasing adoption of cloud solutions in banking.

A recent Finastra survey found that 27% of financial institutions globally improved or deployed cloud solutions in the past year, with higher rates in some Asia-Pacific countries.

The companies plan to roll out their managed lending services more widely across these regions.

🔗 Source: Finastra

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Financial institutions increasingly embrace managed cloud services to reduce operational complexity

This partnership reflects a broader shift where banks are moving away from managing their own IT infrastructure toward outsourced cloud solutions.

Finastra’s Lending Cloud Service specifically allows financial institutions to “outsource their IT supply chain, reducing the need for in-house management,” addressing banks’ focus on operational efficiency and cost reduction 1.

The managed services approach helps banks consolidate complex lending systems while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements, which is particularly important as institutions face pressure to modernize legacy infrastructure.

This trend toward IT outsourcing represents banks recognizing that core banking technology management may not be their competitive advantage. This shift allows them to focus resources on customer relationships and financial products instead.

2️⃣ APAC markets drive global cloud adoption in financial services at unprecedented rates

The partnership’s regional focus on APAC reflects where the most aggressive cloud transformation is happening in banking.

Vietnam leads globally with 56% of financial institutions having deployed or improved cloud solutions in the past year, followed by Hong Kong at 46% and Singapore at 44% 2.