UK financial services company Lloyds Banking Group has signed a multi-year agreement with Oracle.

The bank, under the agreement, is migrating its databases to Oracle Database@Azure, enabling the company to use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure deployed within Microsoft Azure data centers in the UK.

In addition, Lloyds will use Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer to operate some of its databases within its own data centers, an offering that brings Oracle’s services to on-premises data centers.

“As we focus on growth and diversifying our business, maximizing our use of data across the Group becomes critical so that we can innovate and deliver new services faster for our customers,” said Joe Soule, CIO, Enabling Services, Lloyds Banking Group.

“The ability to flexibly deploy Oracle databases on-premises or in the public cloud, in combination with Microsoft Azure through a multicloud approach, enables us to accelerate the pace at which we adopt digital technologies. This ensures we can support our customers with high-performing services and the best customer experience possible.”

“Few sectors are evolving as rapidly as the financial services industry when it comes to cloud adoption,” added Richard Smith, executive vice president and general manager, EMEA cloud infrastructure, Oracle. “Lloyds is one of the companies at the forefront of this transition. By taking advantage of the industry’s most comprehensive and flexible approach to the cloud, Lloyds can streamline its migration to the cloud and enable more innovation for its customers.”

During the recent Oracle CloudWorld event in London, Lloyds Banking Group’s director of cloud platform, Steven Jeffrey, discussed the partnership.

Jeffrey noted that the company is currently in the middle of a £4 billion ($5.18bn) transformation and that the company, beyond seeing itself as holding a “key responsibility to help build the efficiency and powerful economy and financial system that the UK needs,” is seeking to use technology and AI to “revolutionize the way banking is done.”

In the last year, Lloyds has hired 1,500 new tech and data employees to support this effort.

The bank did a preview of the Oracle Database@Azure in the US first, and when the service became available in the UK, they deployed “really quickly the basic infrastructure.”

The company’s migration to the cloud is the result of multiple partnerships, with Jeffrey noting they have relationships with Oracle, Microsoft, and “another hyperscale service provider.” Thus far, the company has seen 50 percent of its on-premise estate “cleared up,” with the company consolidating its data centers and now establishing a private cloud.