Deutsche Bank Says AI Has Cut Some Corporate Loan Decisions from Weeks to Minutes
The bank's CTO described its internal ADA platform for building and overseeing AI agents, as a new industry survey finds 82 percent of banks using generative AI for decisions but only 18 percent with full operational AI governance.
Deutsche Bank chief technology officer Marie-Jeanne Deverdun said in a Reuters interview published October 26 that AI has cut loan decision times for smaller corporates from weeks to minutes, with the capability live since summer 2026, and multinational lending reduced from months to weeks. The bank built its internal ADA platform to develop, monitor and control AI agents — including swapping underlying models as the technology evolves — and describes preparing for an "agentic economy" with clear accountability. Barclays, meanwhile, appointed its first chief AI officer, reported October 30.
The disclosure complements a separate trend reported since October 22, in which Western banks have been blocking third-party AI agents from their customer-facing channels: the same institutions restricting external agents are aggressively building supervised internal ones. An industry survey by SAS and FT Longitude covering 300 banks, released October 22, found 82 percent use generative AI in decision-making while only 18 percent have fully operational AI governance, and 76 percent expect autonomous credit decisions by 2031. The turnaround-time figures are the bank's own statements, unaudited, and the survey is vendor-sponsored.