IBM announced its first IBM Cloud Multizone Region (MZR) in Spain and a new agreement with CaixaBank, a leading financial group in Spain, to boost the bank's digital capabilities by joining this MZR and embracing IBM Cloud for Financial Services. IBM has been a technology partner of CaixaBank for more than 50 years. Under this agreement, CaixaBank will launch its CloudNow project which aims to evolve business core applications, improve efficiencies and reinforce its innovative vision of financial services with increased availability and resiliency To help scale hybrid cloud adoption, IBM's new MZR is designed to enable European clients to deploy mission-critical workloads with high levels of security, and address their data sovereignty and regulatory compliance requirements. IBM's expanded footprint signals its continued investment to help foster business growth in Europe and is expected to create hundreds of jobs in Spain. IBM continues to support the EU's efforts to build greater trust in the digital economy. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services incorporates built-in security and compliance controls to help companies reduce regulatory barriers impeding IT landscape and application modernization. Supported by a growing ecosystem of more than 100 technology partners and FinTechs, the platform is designed to speed financial institutions' transformations while addressing potential systemic industry risks throughout the supply chain. As part of this agreement, Kyndryl, the new, independent public company that will be created following the separation of IBM's Managed Infrastructure Services business, will help CaixaBank to integrate their new hybrid cloud model while the bank leverages IBM Global Business Services' deep industry expertise to continuously support their industry innovation capabilities.