Technology services company Endava has released its Retail Banking Report, finding that three quarters of banks admit they need to modernise their core. Endava’s Retail Banking Report explores financial institutions’ (FIs) strategies for meeting customer demand, and discovers 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%).

Strategic ambitions and technology trends 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.

Endava officials emphasised that FIs understand the importance of modern banking and cloud-based cores. Migrating legacy systems isn't enough; modernisation requires leveraging digital technology for flexibility and innovation. Collaborating with tech partners to implement new cores enables customer-centric banking, facilitating agility and security to maintain market share.

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