“Together, our companies will significantly advance the industry's data analytics capabilities to a new level, creating an industry-leading platform that will best position credit unions to improve the member experience, enable growth and compete more effectively with larger financial institutions and fintechs,” said Tim Peterson, president AdvantEdge Analytics. “Combining Microsoft's technology leadership and CUNA Mutual Group's long-standing experience working with credit unions, together we will exponentially expand the industry's ability to capture the full value of data analytics to meet and exceed the evolving needs of their members.”

AdvantEdge Analytics provides an integrated suite of software tools and insight activation services. The business focuses on building scale, better member intelligence and accelerated analytics adoption to help credit unions strengthen market share and build long term growth.

Meanwhile Microsoft continues its very visible extension into financial technology. Recently it announced joining with Finastra, formed in 2017 by the combination of Misys and D+H, for cloud-based financial services software. The alliance will see Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform, supporting FusionFabric.cloud as Finastra's strategic cloud platform. In addition, Finastra will launch a selection of global payments and retail banking products on Azure over the course of this year.

In addition, Microsoft and Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced a collaboration on blockchain technology as the tech giant expands the scale of its blockchain as a service platform for Azure clients. In an announcement at the annual SWIFT-organized Sibos conference, the two firms highlighted their objective to transform the highly manual trade finance sector.

Microsoft and BOA will, according to a press release, build and test technology, create frameworks, and establish best practices for blockchain-powered exchanges between businesses and their customers and banks.