Three-quarters of banks admit they need to modernise their core
But this isn’t just a need to leave legacy technology behind, as over half (55%) have already shifted systems to a cloud-based core. With 75% still saying they need to modernise, data shows the journey to cloud has just begun.
A strong majority (85%) want to dial up digital customer experience, with customer-centric banking and modernisation becoming key goals.
AI and data analytics are top priorities for new technologies, and 81% are preparing to upgrade existing open banking and payment gateways.
Endava, a leading technology services company combining world-class engineering, industry expertise and a people-centric mindset, today launched its Retail Banking Report. The report explores financial institutions’ (FIs) strategies for meeting customer demand, and uncovers that the majority (75%) are struggling to take advantage of new payment offerings and stronger cybersecurity because their core systems haven’t been modernised.
However, 75% of organisations believe they offer a good user experience, have strong data management practices and better technology than competitors. But even though over half of the FIs have moved their core systems to the cloud, the responses reveal problems implementing, scaling, or managing them. The top barriers to implementing a cloud-based core are competing technical priorities (40%), a lack of technical resources to manage it (37%), a fear of a long implementation (32%), and fraud/security concerns (29%).
FIs continue to face rising interest rates and inflation, and the report also taps into economic drivers such as creating a more profitable and loyal customer base. FIs ranked high priority ambitions for the next year as increasing efficiency (85%) and retaining customers (83%), as well as improving the digital customer experience (85%), maintaining system stability (83%), and strengthening security/reducing fraud (83%). To meet these goals, many are turning to new technologies to improve internal processes and customer-facing products.
While most are in the early stages of adoption, half of the FIs see AI as a top area for investment, closely followed by data analytics (45%) – both of which can offer powerful real-time fraud detection, virtual assistants, security, and investment management. When it comes to their existing tech, upgrading open banking (81%) and payment gateways (81%) are high or very high priorities. These focus areas will help them tackle ongoing challenges by becoming more customer-driven and tapping into additional revenue.
Fred Fuller, Global Head of Banking at Endava, commented: “FIs have come a long way in embracing the fact that modern banking and a cloud-based core go hand-in-hand. Banks also recognise that migrating a legacy monolithic core to the cloud is not modernisation. They need to leverage modern digital technology to truly modernise the core to create a flexible and dynamic infrastructure that can quickly respond to customer and market demands. Although FIs think their technology is stronger than their competitors, the reality is that new features and functionality are usually built on old systems, which massively limits their scope for innovation.
“Working with technology partners who can implement and manage a new core will help them embrace customer-centric banking. This means being able to quickly roll out new products and services, as well as streamlining and securing their internal processes – all of which will help them hold onto market share.”
To learn more about how retail banks are navigating new technology and evolving customer expectations, and how you can too, read the full report here.
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