BNP Paribas Signs Google Cloud AI Partnership But Keeps Sensitive Data Off Public Cloud

BNP Paribas Announces Five-Year Partnership with Google Cloud

BNP Paribas has signed a five-year partnership with Google Cloud to expand access to advanced AI capabilities including Gemini Enterprise and Gemini AI models1

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. The agreement gives the French bank access to Google public cloud infrastructure as it develops agentic AI agents for internal work including corporate credit memos, sales, trading, research, and structuring activities2

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. This AI partnership will support BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking with planned deployment of purpose-built agents tailored to specific business needs4

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Sensitive Data Remains on On-Premise Infrastructure

Despite the Google Cloud deal, BNP Paribas will keep some sensitive customer data and critical operations off public cloud infrastructure1

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. BNP Group Chief Information Officer Marc Camus emphasized that signing this agreement doesn't mean the bank will eliminate its on-premise infrastructure3

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. Medical information held by its insurance operations serves as an example of highly confidential data for which BNP avoids public cloud solutions5

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. The use of Google Cloud will follow BNP Paribas' existing data security and data governance requirements, which determine what type of data and workloads can be processed in a public cloud environment4

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Multi-Cloud Strategy with Mistral AI and Open-Source Models

BNP Paribas operates a multi-cloud strategy and will continue using open-source models while maintaining its partnership with French AI company Mistral AI, with different providers used for different applications1

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. In May, the bank renewed its existing partnership with Mistral AI for another three years, particularly focusing on strengthening cyber defenses2

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. According to Marc Camus, this multi-cloud and multi-model approach gives the bank flexibility to select the right model, infrastructure, and level of control for each case to meet requirements for quality and data security while delivering the best balance between cost and value2

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Gemini Models Integration into LLM@CIB Generative AI Assistant

Gemini models will be integrated into LLM@CIB, the bank's generative AI assistant currently available to more than 65,000 employees2

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. Google Cloud and Gemini technologies have already been deployed at Nickel, BNP Paribas' payment account business, where Gemini serves as the foundational model for Nickel Assist, helping 200 customer advisers find answers to customer requests based on operating guidelines4

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. The bank sees scope to use Google technology for less sensitive work such as invoice processing and data management3

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Data Ownership and Security Controls for AI Agents

Google confirmed that BNP Paribas would retain ownership of its data, which would not be used to train, tune, or refine its models1

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. Security is a key pillar of BNP Paribas' agentic AI strategy, with each AI agent being authenticated and granted access only to the resources required to perform its assigned task4

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. The connection of AI agents to the Group's information systems and their respective interactions will be monitored and controlled4

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. Both BNP Paribas and Google declined to disclose the financial value of the deal5

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. The partnership will also contribute to BNP Paribas' existing Group-wide AI adoption program, with learning opportunities ranging from foundational AI literacy to specialized AI agent development4

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