IBM's $700 million deal with Santander includes Blockchain technology

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Banco Santander signed a five-year global technology agreement valued at approximately $700M to enable Santander Group to accelerate and deepen its business transformation. The agreement will enable Santander Group to evolve towards the open, flexible and modern IT environment it requires to materialize the pivotal role that technology and digital capabilities play in its business strategy. Together with that modernization journey, essential to provide new efficiencies to the bank's operations, the agreement will also boost Santander's capability to deliver innovative services to its customers. To that end, Santander will be able to enrich its services and applications with IBM's most innovative and disruptive technologies, such as AI, blockchain and big data, all supported by security advanced solutions. Using IBM Watson, for instance, Santander is incorporating AI capabilities to improve customer experience, enhance branch advisors expertise and increase employee productivity.