Backbase has recently appointed Adrian McPhee as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO), a strategic move aimed at advancing the company’s AI-powered banking platform and reinforcing its technology vision. McPhee brings over two decades of experience in driving technology transformations across diverse industries, including fintech, retail, mobility, and digital marketplaces. His appointment arrives in the wake of Backbase’s launch of the world’s first AI-powered Banking Platform, designed to position banks at the forefront of a significant technological evolution within the sector.

Before joining Backbase, McPhee held the position of Global CTO at LeasePlan, where he led a vast technology organisation of more than 1,000 employees and spearheaded pivotal digital transformation initiatives. LeasePlan, operating in 28 countries with its banking division regulated by the European Central Bank, benefited from his leadership during a period of substantial change. McPhee notably modernised LeasePlan’s digital architecture and expanded its engineering teams from 25 to over 500 members. Moreover, his efforts in establishing data, AI, and analytics platforms earned the company the 2022 IDC Award for Data Management Excellence. His extensive expertise in cultivating engineering cultures, modernising legacy systems, and launching scalable digital business solutions aligns closely with Backbase’s ambitions to scale AI solutions throughout the banking industry.

Backbase’s CEO and Founder, Jouk Pleiter, highlighted McPhee’s experience as an ideal match for the company’s future goals, emphasising the strategic importance of his role in leading the industry towards an AI-powered banking future. As CTO, McPhee will oversee the company’s international technology operations, product engineering, and the development of new AI capabilities within Backbase’s Intelligence Fabric and Agentic AI. He will also spearhead the global adoption of Backbase’s AI-powered Banking Platform, aiming to help banks optimise both processes and customer interactions amid ongoing sector-wide transformation.

McPhee expressed enthusiasm about his new role, recognising the challenge and opportunity presented by the banking industry’s transformation. He emphasised Backbase’s unique position in leading AI-driven innovation for financial institutions, signalling his commitment to working closely with the company’s leadership and global talent to deliver significant value and help banks realise the full potential of AI.

Backbase’s AI-powered Banking Platform, launched following the introduction of its Intelligence Fabric in 2024, is positioned as a transformative solution for banking growth and efficiency. The platform unifies customer servicing and digital sales, harnessing AI to provide self-service and real-time support, enhance employee productivity, enable smarter decision-making, and automate sales processes. Its modular, intelligent agents—Agentic AI—and its unified data foundation turn behavioural signals, transactional data, and operational insights into actionable intelligence in real-time. This trusted AI foundation ensures transparency, security, and auditability for every decision, recommendation, and action taken through the platform.

The platform is already operational and globally available, aiming to empower over 150 financial institutions worldwide to modernise operations across various banking sectors, including Retail, SME, Commercial, Private Banking, and Wealth Management. With regional headquarters in Atlanta and Singapore and presence in major cities like London, Sydney, Toronto, Dubai, Kraków, Cardiff, Hyderabad, and Mexico City, Backbase is scaling its technological capabilities on an international level.

The company asserts that this combination of McPhee’s leadership experience and its cutting-edge AI platform positions Backbase as a significant player in the banking technology arena, ready to drive the next generation of AI-powered financial services globally.

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Source: Noah Wire Services