At the core of the global financial system, IBM's mainframe computers continue to reign supreme, processing the majority of electronic transactions worldwide. Mainframes handle 90% of all credit card transactions and form the bedrock for 70% of global transactions on a value basis. This dominance is underscored by the fact that 44 of the top 50 banks use IBM Z mainframes.
The latest innovation in this legacy is the IBM z16 system, powered by the Telum processor. Telum is IBM's first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing while a transaction is taking place. This capability is a game-changer for the financial sector, enabling real-time fraud detection at a massive scale. The IBM z16 can process 300 billion inference requests per day with just one millisecond of latency. This allows banks to analyze 100% of transactions for potential fraud without impacting response times, a significant improvement over previous methods where often less than 10% of high-volume transactions could be scored.
The Telum processor features 8 processor cores running with a clock frequency of more than 5 GHz, optimized for the demands of heterogenous enterprise-class workloads. IBM has already announced its successor, the Telum II, which will feature a 40% increase in on-chip cache capacity and further enhance AI capabilities. These advancements are crucial as financial institutions increasingly turn to AI models for credit scoring, anti-money laundering detection, and dynamic pricing.
Reliability and security remain the mainframe's hallmark features. The zSystem boasts seven 9s of reliability, which translates to single-digit seconds of downtime per year. Furthermore, IBM is pioneering 'Quantum Safe' solutions, designing systems to protect against future threats that could crack today's encryption technologies. This focus on security is why 71% of Fortune 500 companies and all of the top 10 insurers worldwide rely on IBM mainframes. As AI becomes more deeply integrated into financial operations, the mainframe's role as the secure, high-performance engine for global commerce is more critical than ever.