Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Accelerates Cloud-First Strategy with Amazon Web Services

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan’s largest financial services provider, is stepping up its cloud-first strategy. They have chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their primary cloud provider.

Boosting Customer Service with Cloud Tech

MUFG’s partnership with AWS, a leading cloud service provider, will enable it to utilize the most recent cloud technologies. These include generative artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve customer service. The technologies will aid in making data-driven business decisions, automating processes, and creating new digital financial products. This is in response to the fast-changing needs of customers in asset servicing, banking, and fund financing.

By transitioning from on-site data centers to AWS, MUFG managed to reduce the cost of operating its standard IT infrastructure by 20%. The shift also enabled them to innovate personalized financial services more swiftly.

Benefits of Cloud Operation

Operating in the cloud allows MUFG to deliver faster financial processing times, more timely insights, and secure access to digital services. These services promote long-term financial security for its clients. One such innovation is Money Canvas, a secure asset management platform developed using AWS. The platform allows customers to select and manage MUFG and partner financial services best suited for them through their mobile devices.

Leveraging AI and ML to Enhance Customer Experience

MUFG is testing generative AI applications using Amazon Bedrock. The service provides multiple foundation models (FMs) via an API. The financial group is looking into over 100 potential generative AI use cases to boost productivity across all its business lines. This includes customer service, finance, human resources, and sales.

MUFG has noticed a 30% increase in productivity after using Amazon SageMaker to automate account transfer requests. The Markets Business Unit of MUFG, providing products and services to a diverse customer base, built an analytics environment using the same tool.

Utilizing Analytics for Employee Engagement

Throughout its 360-year history, MUFG traditionally analyzed data in siloes within its various banks. This made it hard to glean insights for decision-making. Today, the bank uses Amazon Redshift, a cloud data warehouse, to transform this data into predictive insights. These insights optimize sales activities, enhance customer interactions, and improve operational efficiencies.

MUFG also employs analytics tools to enhance employee engagement and aggregate survey response data. With Amazon QuickSight, a cloud-based business intelligence service, MUFG has been able to reduce the time it takes to aggregate employee responses by 25% and reduce operational costs by approximately 70% compared to traditional technology.

Aiming to Become a Digital Financial Platform

The collaboration with AWS is helping MUFG achieve its goal of becoming a digital financial platform. Toshiki Ochi, managing corporate executive and group chief information officer at MUFG, noted that their cloud-first approach has given them the agility to innovate rapidly for their customers and reduce cost.

Scott Mullins, managing director, Worldwide Financial Services at AWS, echoed this sentiment. He pointed out that the financial services industry is undergoing a significant digital transformation. This transformation is driven by consumer expectations for personalized, frictionless experiences powered by generative AI.