The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has opened a dedicated Tech Hub in Seattle, positioning the new facility as a “strategic gateway” to one of the US’s leading tech development centres.

CBA said the newly unveiled Hub, opened last month, would advance its technology leadership and delivery of outstanding customer experiences.

Seattle is a base for a number of US bigtech firms, including Amazon and Microsoft, and serves as an engineering centre for Meta, Google, and Apple.

“A Tech Hub based in Seattle – an area that is home to leading global technology companies – will connect our technologists with our partners to accelerate how we deliver new banking solutions for customers,” said CommBank group executive technology Gavin Munroe.

He added that the facility would enable CBA’s tech teams to bring “new ideas” back to Australia “to enhance how we work, while boosting the knowledge and expertise in Australia’s tech ecosystem”.

The bank’s “first cohort” of technologists would be focused on exploring agentic – that is, AI systems empowered to make autonomous decisions – and generative AI solutions, centred on support services for small businesses.

CBA technology teams will be able to take part in a three-week exchange within the Hub, with opportunities to collaborate with the bank’s established tech partners Amazon Web Services, (AWS), Anthropic, H2O and Microsoft.

CBA group chief technology officer Rodrigo Castillo, commenting on the newly launched centre on his LinkedIn page, said the hub would provide CBA engineers with the opportunity “to learn, get connected to technology experts, and advance their careers in the heart of one of the best tech ecosystems in the world”.

He acknowledged bank’s longstanding tech partners AWS and Microsoft “who have helped shape this [tech hub] experience”.