Deutsche Bank is creating a series of innovation labs with Microsoft, IBM and HCL Technologies in an attempt to outdo its digital banking competitors.
The banks aims to launch these labs in Berlin, London and Palo Alto, California, and wants to work with local start-ups, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.
The German lender will then send bankers to the labs to learn how to improve internal processes and customer experience, it is claimed.
The news comes as the banking sector struggles to keep up with alternative payment platforms like PayPal and Apple Pay, alongside a string of start-up services like Ripple, an open source payments protocol that allows users to exchange digital currencies.
Forrester predicts US citizens will make $142bn in mobile payments a year by 2019, compared to an expected $52bn by the end of this year.
With rivals to banks' own mobile payment transfers typically offering cheaper online transactions, banks are keen to improve to ensure they do not miss out on the market.
Deutsche Bank announced in May that it would invest $250m in digitising client-related operations, while Barclays Bank has started an accelerator programme with venture capital firm Techstars.
How the UK public sector could benefit from strategic channel partnerships
Microsoft wants to replace C and C++ with Rust by 2030
