Recognition reinforces RBC's leadership in intelligent financial services, backed by a decade of innovation investment
TORONTO, Aug. 13, 2026 /CNW/ -- Royal Bank of Canada (TSX: RY) (NYSE: RY) has been named an IDC CIO Awards Canada 2026 winner for retail credit underwriting, an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted digital transformation program. The initiative is one of several that will help achieve the organization's bold ambition to generate $700 million to $1 billion in enterprise value from AI benefits by 2027.
The CIO Award recognizes RBC's investments in modernized technology infrastructure, AI talent, and disciplined execution. Early results from the program, which enables the bank to look beyond traditional credit models, include improved approval rates, accelerated decision timelines and increased client acquisition.
"Traditionally, credit underwriting has been one of the most rule-bound processes in banking," said Chris Phillips, Senior Vice President, Global Functions Technology, RBC. "By bringing together modernized infrastructure and purpose-built AI capabilities, we have shown that even deeply embedded processes can be reimagined and in a way that benefits clients."
AI-enhanced retail credit underwriting was built on ATOM, RBC's proprietary foundation model which was securely trained on large-scale financial datasets, providing it with a unique breadth of knowledge in financial services and expertise that can be used across a variety of banking tasks. The retail credit underwriting program demonstrates how the bank is translating infrastructure investments into scaled business outcomes. Through this program, RBC can tailor credit offers to each client's unique circumstances, leading to better decisions and more personalized experiences. The in-house development and use of cutting-edge science enables RBC to derive unique insights and develop innovative solutions, all within a responsible AI framework.
"Innovation in financial services only creates lasting value when it is built on a foundation of sound risk management," said Gopala Narayanan, Senior Vice President, Retail Risk and Chief Operating Officer, Group Risk Management. "Bold ambition and disciplined risk governance are not mutually exclusive; they are mutually reinforcing. By combining the scale of our data, the strength of RBC Borealis with its AI capabilities, and rigorous governance, we're making better decisions, delivering
better client outcomes, and, in the process, creating sustainable competitive advantage."
Reinforcing RBC's AI leadership
RBC continues to demonstrate global leadership in AI, ranking #1 in Canada and #3 globally among financial institutions for AI maturity in the 2025 Evident AI Index. In February 2026, RBC established the AI Group, a dedicated team reporting to the CEO, to accelerate the scaling of high-potential AI use cases into market-ready solutions. RBC has also advanced RBC has also advanced responsible AI practices through strategic partnerships including its platinum sponsorship of the Vector Institute, membership in FinTechAI@CSAIL, an initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and participation in the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS)
"We're thrilled to announce the winners of the IDC CIO Awards Canada 2026. This prestigious award celebrates exceptional Canadian organizations that are leveraging technology to drive digital transformation and deliver measurable business value within their organization," said Allice Shandler, Senior Director, Events – Americas at IDC and CIO Awards Canada Program Chair.
"This year's winning projects are not only innovative but also inspiring examples of what's possible when visionary leadership is paired with a highly skilled, future-focused workforce. We are honoured to recognize these achievements and the remarkable individuals behind them at our awards ceremony, which will take place following IDC's CIO Summit Canada event on November 19, 2026, at Delta Hotels Toronto," Shandler added
Caution regarding forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the "safe harbour" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation, with respect to RBC's current beliefs, plans and expectations regarding future events and strategy. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to RBC's goal to generate up to $1 billion in value derived from AI benefits by 2027. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "suggest", "seek", "foresee", "forecast", "schedule", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "commit", "target", "objective", "plan", "outlook", "timeline" and "project" and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "might", "should", "could", "can", "would" or negative or grammatical variations thereof.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific in nature, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct, that our forward-looking statements, including statements about the Vancouver Banking and Innovation Hub, will not be achieved and that our actual results may differ materially from such predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions.
We caution readers not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors – many of which are beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict – include, but are not limited to: business and economic conditions in the geographic regions in which we operate, Canadian housing and household indebtedness, information technology, cyber and third-party risks, geopolitical uncertainty (including risks associated with escalating conflict in the Middle East), environmental and social risk, digital disruption and innovation, privacy and data related risks, regulatory changes, culture and conduct risks, credit, market, liquidity and funding, insurance, operational, compliance, reputation and strategic risks, other risks discussed in the risk sections of our 2025 Annual Report and the Risk management section of our Q2 2026 Report to Shareholders, including legal and regulatory environment risk, the effects of changes in government fiscal, monetary and other policies and tax risk and transparency, risks associated with escalating trade tensions, including protectionist trade policies such as the imposition of tariffs, risks associated with the adoption of emerging technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI, and robotics, fraud risk and our ability to anticipate and successfully manage risks arising from all of the foregoing factors. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations in such forward-looking statements can be found in the risk sections of our 2025 Annual Report and the Risk management section of our Q2 2026 Report to Shareholders, as may be updated by subsequent quarterly reports.
We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events, as well as the inherent uncertainty of forward-looking statements. Material economic assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained in this document are set out in the Economic, market and regulatory review and outlook section and for each business segment under the Strategic priorities and Outlook headings in our 2025 Annual Report, as updated by the Economic, market and regulatory review and outlook section of our Q2 2026 Report to Shareholders. Such sections may be updated by subsequent quarterly reports. Any forward-looking statements contained in this document represent the views of management only as of the date hereof, and except as required by law, we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 101,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our more than 19 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.
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Media Contact:
Briana D'Archi, RBC Corporate Communications, [email protected]
SOURCE RBC Royal Bank
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