Crédit Agricole Personal Finance and Mobility (CAPFM), the specialized consumer credit arm of the Crédit Agricole Group, is a cornerstone of the European lending market, managing over €122.5 billion in outstandings across 22 countries. In France, the organization is best known for its consumer brand, Sofinco, an iconic leader in automotive finance and personal lending.
For a global finance leader like CAPFM, the technical engine that drives their business and reputation has to be infallible. CAPFM supports 17.2 million customers with loans to adopt sustainable mobility solutions, modernize their homes and manage their finances responsibly. To exceed customers’ expectations, stay competitive and ensure operational efficiency, the company is committed to continuous modernization of their core systems and embracing innovation with state-of-the-art technology.
The company defines its mission as “100% digital + 100% human.” Its goal is to create a frictionless banking experience with digital tools and personalized human advice. While customers interact with modern, user-friendly digital interfaces for loans, the heavy lifting of the bank’s transactional volume is performed by a core system built on Software AG Natural and IBM Db2 database. This combination allows CAPFM to pair the high velocity execution of Natural applications with the open data standards of a relational database.
Under the leadership of Philippe Mangematin, Head of Research and Development, a special division manages the high-volume transactional engine that powers the entire credit lifecycle.
By shifting from isolated product silos to a unified digital platform, CAPFM has completely transformed its subscription circuits. This digitalization of key lending processes,powered by the seamless connection between front-end web services and the Natural backend, has resulted in a 30% gain in productivity, allowing for faster loan approvals and a superior customer journey. As Mangematin explains, “we rely on Natural for our core banking systems, managing everything from partner repositories to our primary interfaces. It truly powers the entire middle and back office.”
By strategically staying with Natural for Db2 and IBM Z platforms, CAPFM has built a modernized engine that handles the high-stakes reality of consumer lending with total stability, processing 300,000 transactions per day and ensuring the core system is a driver of digital agility rather than a bottleneck.
“Software AG’s long term 2050+ roadmap provided the strategic confidence we needed to double down on this foundation and migrate to the new IBM z17 platform to achieve superior performance and greater efficiency.”
Philippe Mangematin, Head of Research and Development, Crédit Agricole Personal Finance and Mobility (CAPFM)
A key component of CAPFM’s success is its commitment to high-performance infrastructure. The organization maintains a sizeable footprint of 5,800 MIPS, ensuring the horsepower necessary for international operations. Mangematin explains: “Software AG’s long term 2050+ roadmap provided the strategic confidence we needed to double down on this foundation and migrate to the new IBM z17 platform to achieve superior performance and greater efficiency.”
Beyond supporting growing workloads, IBM z17 positions CAPFM to take advantage of future innovations as they emerge. The z17 AI hardware processing and accelerators provide a foundation for developing agentic AI models that can help advisors better understand a customer’s broader account story, receive recommended next steps, and deliver more personalized support. IBM z17 brings AI closer to core data and transactions while maintaining the performance, resilience, and security that has long defined the IBM Z platform.
The z17 energy-efficient design also supports CAPFM’s ‘green coding’ initiative to minimize the energy involved in processing every line of code. The Telum II processor with on‑chip AI and Spyre Accelerator can handle up to 24 trillion operations per second. This allows applications to be optimized for minimal processing overhead, a key green coding principle.
“Our confidence in the 2050+ agenda has also enabled us to create a new era of ‘augmented developers,'” Mangematin notes. By utilizing the latest version of the high-level Natural language, CAPFM has achieved a 20% reduction in IT “build to run” costs.
Software AG’s Predict Data Dictionary (PDD) provides a critical layer of transparency across applications and data definitions. This improved visibility accelerates onboarding, supports accurate documentation, and enables teams to make updates to core applications with greater speed, consistency, and confidence.
Importantly, this helps address the industry wide skills gap, proving that Natural is a bridge rather than a barrier to new talent. Philippe notes that the language facilitates a smooth transition for new hires: “The learning curve is very short; our developers find it quite easy to integrate with the team and begin creating Natural programs.” This accessibility has enabled CAPFM to build a sustainable workforce where nearly a third of the team are junior developers building the skills they need for decades to come.
The results of this optimization strategy align directly with the Crédit Agricole Group’s broader objectives under its ‘ACT 2028’ plan: with the Natural for Db2 serving as a ‘stable system of record,’ the bank now has the confidence to shift its focus and resources towards innovation in the customer-journey.
Free to focus elsewhere, CAPFM has launched new age initiatives, such as the recent deployment of Generative AI agents to 30% of advisors. By harmonizing 5,800 MIPS of raw power on the IBM Z with the efficiency of Natural for DB2, CAPFM has built an IT foundation that is cost efficient, technically superior, and ready to lead the transition to a data driven, low carbon economy.
Die IBM z17 Plattform treibt Innovationen voran, indem sie KI, fortschrittliche Automatisierung und Sicherheit auf Enterprise-Niveau kombiniert. So unterstützt sie Unternehmen dabei, geschäftskritische Anwendungen zuverlässig und sicher zu betreiben.
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