Customers Bank has entered a multiyear collaboration with OpenAI aimed at automating the bank's lending operations and customer onboarding procedures. Under the agreement, OpenAI engineers will be embedded within the bank to support implementation of the automation workstreams.
Chief Executive Officer Sam Sidhu said the bank is pursuing a substantive improvement in its efficiency ratio, moving from roughly 49% down to the low 40s. Sidhu indicated that the bank expects to see higher returns beginning in 2027 as these automation measures take hold.
As part of the partnership, the two organizations will co-develop finance-focused tools. Sidhu noted that these tools could ultimately be offered by OpenAI to other banking institutions, expanding the potential reach of the technology beyond Customers Bank's internal operations.
OpenAI's chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, provided a statement underscoring the company's role in the engagement. Dresser said OpenAI is proud to assist Customers Bank "as they build a more intelligent operating model that empowers employees."
The scope of the deal centers on applying AI and engineering resources directly inside the bank to streamline lending processes and onboarding, with the dual goals of lowering operating costs and accelerating the timeline to improved returns. Embedding engineers at the client site is a central feature of the arrangement and reflects a hands-on approach to implementing the automation program.
Management’s projection links the expected improvement in efficiency to the staged rollout and integration of automation capabilities. The bank has tied the realization of higher returns to a future date, making the timeline an explicit component of the strategic case for the partnership.
The agreement also contemplates the joint creation of software tools for finance. The bank has signaled that OpenAI could commercialize such products to other banks in time, indicating a potential path from internal operational use to broader market availability.
Overall, the deal combines operational objectives for Customers Bank with a product-development element that could extend OpenAI’s offerings into the banking sector. The arrangement focuses on execution within the bank and a defined expectation for when financial benefits should begin to materialize.