Thailand’s Krungsri has renewed its agreement with Kyndryl for five years, extending the technology services provider’s role across the bank’s core infrastructure, mainframe capacity, automation and artificial intelligence operations.
Under the agreement, Kyndryl will support the Bank of Ayudhya subsidiary’s core banking transformation through managed services, application modernization and its Kyndryl Bridge platform, according to the company’s September 10 announcement. The companies did not disclose the contract value.
Agreement covers mainframe and data center operations
Kyndryl said the engagement covers Krungsri’s data center IT environment, including infrastructure supporting more than 4,800 automated teller machines. It will provide Mainframe-as-a-Service capacity and operational support as the bank modernizes systems that underpin its core banking operations.
The service model is intended to give Krungsri access to mainframe capacity without the bank managing every underlying infrastructure component itself. Kyndryl did not disclose how much capacity is included, whether it is dedicated to the bank or how service levels will be measured during the agreement.
The companies plan to use Kyndryl Bridge, an integration platform that applies data and automation across IT operations. Kyndryl said the work is intended to reduce manual tasks, strengthen infrastructure monitoring and optimize batch processing. No implementation milestones, infrastructure-capacity figures or performance targets were disclosed.
The agreement also includes the Kyndryl Agentic AI Framework. Kyndryl said the framework will orchestrate AI-enabled workflows for application and infrastructure analysis, operational automation and selected modernization initiatives. The announcement says human oversight will remain part of those workflows but does not identify the models, vendors or decision controls that Krungsri will use.
Core banking systems process essential functions such as accounts, transactions and settlement. Modernization projects can involve both newer applications and long-running mainframe workloads, requiring banks to manage service continuity while changing the underlying technology. Kyndryl’s announcement describes a service and operating model for the transformation rather than a completed migration.
Renewal extends an existing technology relationship
Kyndryl said it has previously supported Krungsri in network modernization, cloud adoption, workplace transformation and IT service improvements. The renewed arrangement adds infrastructure and mainframe services as well as AI-enabled operations to that work.
Krungsri President and Chief Executive Officer Kenichi Yamato said the bank needs resilient, flexible and scalable infrastructure as technology, customer expectations, regulation and financial models change. Kittipong Asawapichayon, managing director of Kyndryl Thailand, said the provider will combine its knowledge of the bank’s environment with consulting, automation, mainframe and AI capabilities.
The announcement does not specify whether Kyndryl will replace existing systems or suppliers, which applications will be modernized first, or when new capabilities will enter production. It also provides no measured results from the previous phase of the relationship.
Krungsri is a systemically important Thai bank
Krungsri, formally Bank of Ayudhya, is one of Thailand’s six domestic systemically important banks and a strategic member of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The bank describes itself as Thailand’s fifth-largest financial group by assets, loans and deposits.
According to Kyndryl’s release, Krungsri operates 542 domestic branches, comprising 502 banking branches and 40 auto-business branches, as well as more than 34,379 service outlets. The group reported 10.6 million credit card, sales-finance and personal-loan accounts. Those figures were supplied by the companies and were not independently verified in the announcement.
The bank’s size makes continuity and operational controls central to any core-system change. The release does not identify a regulatory directive behind the project or describe how Krungsri will test resilience as systems are updated.
The five-year term gives the companies a longer operating window for the program, but the scope disclosed so far is broad. The progress of the modernization will depend on the production systems moved or upgraded, service reliability and measurable changes in operating efficiency.
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