Thought Machine
Thought Machine is a banking software company whose Vault Core platform runs core banking services in the cloud. Core banking software records customer accounts and applies the rules for products such as deposits, loans and credit cards. Banks use these systems to connect their product terms with the balances and transactions maintained for each customer.
Vault Core from Thought Machine separates product definitions from the underlying system that processes and records transactions. Banks define product rules in code, including how interest and account conditions work. The approach allows banks to develop and change products without embedding every product rule in a single fixed banking system.
Vault Core and Vault Payments
Thought Machine was founded in London in 2014. Thought Machine develops core banking and payment software for the cloud. Vault Core covers accounts, lending, cards and rewards; Vault Payments covers orchestration, account-to-account payments, card issuing and digital assets. Lloyds Banking Group was its first tier 1 client, and Thought Machine states that it now counts 20 global tier 1 banks as clients.
Deutsche Bank moves to Vault Core
Deutsche Bank signed a global licensing agreement with Thought Machine and adopts Vault Core as the technology base of its retail modernization (Thought Machine). Old and new systems run in parallel during a transition period, and products migrate step by step for a controlled rollout in Germany. The bank's Private Bank says Vault Core separates product logic from the infrastructure below it, so that products can be built and changed faster while fragmented legacy systems are retired. The integration partner is GFT Technologies (FinTech Futures). Core banking in Germany covers the systems German banks run today.
AI in core banking migration
Because Vault defines financial products as Python code, Thought Machine uses AI to move product rules out of old mainframes. With Amazon Web Services it offers Vault Forge on Amazon Bedrock: AWS Transform extracts the business logic from legacy code such as COBOL, and AI models turn it into tested Vault products inside the bank's own AWS environment (Thought Machine). Legacy modernization in banking explains why core migrations take years.
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What is Vault Core?
Thought Machine's cloud-native core banking platform. Vault Core keeps product logic, such as interest calculations and fee schedules, apart from the infrastructure, and each product is written as Python code.
Which German bank uses Thought Machine?
Deutsche Bank chose Vault Core for its retail modernization. Deutsche Bank's products move to the new core in phases.
Banking technology
Thought Machine and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers core banking, cloud and AI in banks in its Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty track. Bankers and technology providers meet at Finance Loop events in Frankfurt and other German cities.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.