What is M&T Bank's technology stack?
M&T Bank's technology stack pairs a mainframe core with cloud systems around it, run by an engineering team that is mostly in-house. Its core banking applications run on IBM Z, which an IBM case study from April 2021 says was opened up with the Z Digital Integration Hub so account information flows in real time to hybrid cloud applications. CFO Daryl Bible said in 2025 that new general ledger, forecasting and profitability systems would make M&T, when complete in 2026, the first large U.S. bank with all its financial systems in the cloud, and that two data centers were being developed in Northern Virginia and Chicago. For models, M&T is building a governed data science workbench on Databricks; for customer data it selected Amperity in August 2025, and it is a long-standing nCino customer for credit monitoring. Employees use Microsoft Copilot, and the Q3 2026 earnings presentation describes an 'AI Factory' platform for building its own solutions. Forbes reported in August 2026 that M&T invests more than $1 billion a year in technology and that 84% of its engineers are bank employees.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Data as of Nov 11, 2026 · M&T profile updated Nov 1, 2026 · 21 sources cited on this page · 141 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
What are the layers of M&T Bank's technology stack?
As M&T executives and its vendors describe them. M&T has not published an architecture diagram, and the sources below do not name its public cloud providers or the vendor of its core deposit system.
| Layer | What is on the record | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core banking | Core banking applications run on IBM Z under z/OS; with IBM's Z Digital Integration Hub they were modernized for an event-driven architecture so real-time account information reaches downstream consumers such as the payment decisioning application, speeding development of hybrid cloud applications by 40% | IBM case study | April 2021[1] |
| Financial systems | New general ledger, forecasting and profitability systems. CFO Daryl Bible: 'When complete in 2026, we will be the first large U.S. bank with all our financial systems in the cloud' | RBC Capital Markets interview | 2025[2] |
| Data centers | Two data centers being developed in Northern Virginia and Chicago, part of seven major strategic initiatives run at once, five of them nine-digit projects | RBC Capital Markets interview | 2025[2] |
| Cloud stance | Then-CIO Mike Wisler: 'Gone are the days when even the largest of institutions are going to be in the business of infrastructure management', and 'running in the cloud is similar to running with scissors' if adoption is hurried; mainframes remain in use and train new engineers through an apprenticeship program | CIO Dive | June 16, 2023[9] |
| Data science platform | A well-governed data science workbench on Databricks as the foundation of the next-generation data science and ML platform, starting with the migration of key Treasury & Financial models from a legacy ML platform; Deloitte is the implementation partner | Databricks Data + AI Summit session page | Undated (retrieved November 11, 2026)[3] |
| Customer data | Amperity selected to consolidate customer interactions into a unified view of the customer | Amperity release | August 5, 2025[4] |
| Commercial credit | An existing and long-standing nCino customer, M&T expanded its use of the nCino platform with the Continuous Credit Monitoring Solution, which uses Rich Data Co's explainable AI platform | nCino release | May 15, 2024[5] |
| Embedded banking | Among the initial users of a new FIS platform that lets businesses reach bank services inside their own software; Rakesh Sahay heads embedded banking | American Banker | September 3, 2026[10] |
| Generative AI for employees | Microsoft Copilot, chosen after chief data officer Andrew Foster vetted large language model providers; 16,000 of the bank's 22,000 employees were using it by September 2025, after a pilot of about 800. Developers also use GitLab tools to generate code | American Banker; AI News | September 18, 2025; September 4, 2026[6][11] |
| AI platform | 'AI Factory': 'a secure, enterprise platform enabling rapid prototyping and deployment of differentiated solutions', the third of three AI pathways after enterprise productivity and vendor-embedded AI | Q3 2026 earnings presentation | October 16, 2026[7] |
| Engineering throughput | Annual releases rose from 15,000 in 2018 to 65,000 in 2025; outages fell by approximately 90% over eight years; the share of technology assets classed as non-destination fell from approximately 30% to the low single digits | Forbes | August 28, 2026[8] |
How is M&T Bank's engineering organization set up?
Michael Wisler joined M&T as chief information officer in 2018 and is now Senior Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations. Forbes reported in August 2026 that under him M&T hired 1,000 technologists, established three technology hubs, and now invests more than $1 billion annually in technology.[8]
The work was brought in-house. Forbes puts the share of engineers who are bank employees at 84%; Fast Company says more than 80% of M&T's tech and data teams work directly for the bank, including at two technology centers in downtown Buffalo. AI News reported about 2,000 technologists working across more than 300 agile teams and technology spending above $1.2 billion in 2025.[8][12][11]
Data comes first in the bank's AI sequence. Chief data officer Andrew Foster, whose remit covers both the AI strategy and the data strategy, told American Banker in September 2025 that 'Data and AI come very tightly coupled', and AI News reports that Foster, who joined the bank in 2023, began building a data-lineage program to track where information originates and how it moves between systems.[6][11]
On build versus buy, the Q3 2026 presentation sets out three pathways: enterprise productivity tools, AI embedded in vendor products, and differentiated capabilities built on the AI Factory. Wisler said in 2023 that outsourcing some of the company's IT lets in-house engineers move 'up the tech stack' to build new software.[7][9]
What does the M&T profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the M&T AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Nov 1, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 38 dated moves, 14 use cases and 41 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | First drafts and call summaries for 16,000 employees. | In production | [6] |
| AI code generation and test scripts | Developers use GitLab to generate code; first test scripts are now written by AI, per Jones; Wisler lists software development among early proprietary uses. | In production | [6][13][8] |
| AI in fraud prevention and cyber defence | Jones says AI is used in cybersecurity, fraud and credit; Wisler names fraud prevention and cyber defence as early proprietary applications. | Rolling out | [14][8] |
| Approved-tool rule and retrieval over governed data | Public LLMs were first blocked from the network; Copilot is the approved tool, retrieval is limited to internal governed data, and staff remain accountable for outputs. | In production | [6][11] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 16, 2026 | Q3 2026 results: three AI pathways and an 'AI Factory' platform | The earnings presentation (slide 20) reports approximately 75% of employees with access to AI tools, more than 150 employee-developed AI solutions, a 20% reduction in call transfers from vendor-embedded AI, 100% of developers using AI, and an enterprise AI platform under construction; CFO Daryl Bible said on the call that hundreds of use cases are tracked. | [7][15] |
| Sep 2, 2026 | Copilots to 15,000-plus employees; agentic AI examined for cyber and fraud | Fast Company's Pacesetters profile of Wisler's transformation. | [12] |
| Aug 28, 2026 | Wisler: dozens of gen-AI use cases on three pathways | Forbes: about 16,000 employees using gen AI, 1,800-plus applications screened for embedded AI, and early proprietary work on repetitive tasks, software development, fraud and cyber. | [8] |
| Aug 11, 2026 | Head of AI engineering hired from Fannie Mae | Kalyana Bedhu takes engineering, platforms, architecture and governance for AI. | [16] |
| Jul 10, 2026 | Linda Tai profiled as chief information officer | Buffalo Business First on her role in the technology transformation; PYMNTS confirms her title a month later. | [17][16] |
| Apr 30, 2026 | Project Keystone: bank-owned tokenised money with FIS | Citizens, Fifth Third, Huntington, KeyBank and M&T among participants. | [18] |
| Apr 15, 2026 | Q1 2026 call: freed-up tech spend goes to automation with AI | General-ledger conversion complete; priorities are 'teaming for growth' and operational excellence using AI and other tools. | [19] |
| Mar 16, 2026 | CEO letter: technology transformation, 'a familiar refrain' | Jones on hiring and cultivating the best people to navigate change. | [20] |
| Sep 18, 2025 | Copilot for 16,000 employees; data quality first | Foster vets LLM providers, chooses Microsoft; lineage and Edison underpin gen AI. | [6] |
| Aug 5, 2025 | Amperity chosen for a unified customer view | The AI-powered customer data cloud consolidates customer interactions for M&T's Customer 360 work. | [4] |
| May 15, 2024 | Continuous credit monitoring on nCino with RDC's explainable AI | Early-warning signs and cash-flow and credit-risk insight across commercial and business-banking portfolios. | [5] |
| Apr 28, 2021 | Buffalo Tech Hub opens at Seneca One | Nearly $58 million invested in a 330,000-square-foot hub; plans to hire more than 1,000 technologists over three to five years. | [21] |
Is M&T Bank's core banking system on a mainframe?
Yes, according to IBM. Its April 2021 case study says M&T's core banking applications run on IBM Z and were modernized with the Z Digital Integration Hub so that account information flows in real time to hybrid cloud applications, without disrupting the core application stacks. The core software vendor is not named in the sources reviewed.
Is M&T Bank moving to the cloud?
In parts. CFO Daryl Bible said in 2025 that new general ledger, forecasting and profitability systems would put all of M&T's financial systems in the cloud when complete in 2026, and its data science platform is being built on Databricks. The bank was also developing two data centers, in Northern Virginia and Chicago.
How much does M&T Bank spend on technology?
Forbes reported in August 2026 that M&T invests more than $1 billion annually in technology, and AI News reported that technology spending exceeded $1.2 billion in 2025, nearly three times its 2017 level. M&T does not break technology spending out as a line in the sources reviewed here.
Which AI tools does M&T Bank use?
Microsoft Copilot is the main employee tool: American Banker reported in September 2025 that 16,000 of the bank's 22,000 employees used it. Developers use GitLab tools to generate code, commercial credit monitoring runs on nCino with Rich Data Co's explainable AI, and the bank is building an internal platform it calls the AI Factory.
Does M&T Bank build its own technology or outsource it?
It has shifted toward building with its own staff. Forbes reported in August 2026 that 84% of the technology organization's engineers are bank employees, reversing an earlier dependence on third parties, while the bank still buys platforms such as nCino, Amperity and Microsoft Copilot.
- M&T Bank: application modernization with IBM Z Digital Integration Hub (case study, April 2021)
- M&T invests for transparency, accountability and fresh markets
- Databricks for Banking ML: Accelerating Delivery with an AI-Enabled Platform (Data + AI Summit session; undated page, retrieved 2026-11-11)
- M&T Bank Selects Amperity to Accelerate Customer Data Strategy
- M&T Bank Expands Use of nCino with Adoption of Continuous Credit Monitoring Solution Powered by Rich Data Co's Explainable AI Platform
- How M&T Bank ensures data quality as it implements gen AI
- M&T Bank Corporation Earnings Results 3rd Quarter 2026 presentation, October 16, 2026 (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2)
- How M&T Bank Built A Technology Powerhouse In Buffalo
- At M&T Bank, modernization and talent strategies intersect in the cloud
- M&T upgrades as banks seek closer ties to corporate clients
- M&T Bank expands enterprise AI after years of technology overhaul
- How this Buffalo-based bank is using tech as a competitive edge
- Regional banks in today's economy: M&T CEO Rene Jones
- M&T Bank at Barclays conference: growth, tech and capital discipline (transcript)
- Earnings call transcript: M&T Bank tops Q3 2026 estimates as shares slip premarket
- M&T Bank Appoints Fannie Mae Veteran Kalyana Bedhu as AI Engineering Head
- M&T exec details bank's strategy for technology, growth
- FIS and Leading Financial Institutions to Build Their Own Digital Tokenized Money Network
- M&T Bank (MTB) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- M&T Bank CEO René Jones Highlights Strong Performance, Technology Transformation in Annual Letter
- M&T Bank Unveils Buffalo Tech Hub, Designed to Create Over 1,000 Jobs
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