Latest Cloud reports and research: Finextra Research

Event Report

How to Formulate an Actionable Cloud Strategy

A Financial Cloud Series Report. Discover the power of the cloud with our comprehensive event report on formulating an actionable cloud strategy. As part of the Financial Cloud Series, Finextra explores the transformative potential of the cloud for the financial and technology industries. Gain insights from industry experts as they discuss how banks are accelerating digital transformation, leveraging the cloud's capacity and scalability, and setting themselves up for success on their cloud journey. Learn about striking the right balance between in-house technology and outsourcing, managing cost-effectiveness and transparency, and navigating hybrid cloud strategies. With an actionable cloud strategy, your organization can unlock innovation, agility, and growth in the digital era. Get your copy now and embark on your cloud journey with confidence. Watch the Finextra Financial Cloud Series webinar - How to Formulate and Actionable Cloud Strategy - on which this report is based. If you would like to get involved in our Financial Cloud Series conference on 7th March 2024 in London, please email us at events@finextra.com

13 July 2023 213 downloads

Survey

Payments Modernisation: The Big Survey 2023

Embracing payments modernisation in a dynamic landscape. Building on the previous 2021 and 2022 industry surveys, the latest 2023 edition captures and examines ongoing priorities within payments modernisation, with a particular focus on the growth or need for partnerships and cloud-facilitated account-to-account (A2A) payment applications and payments-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings. The report analysis will provide a comprehensive overview of the status and adoption of real-time payment networks within domestic markets and increasingly through intra-regional schemes and cross-border networks globally. The background context of shifting regulatory requirements and nonmandated initiatives alongside standards development will give colour and add depth to the state of adoption and implementation one more year on, giving a clear status check and trajectory of the overriding trends and attitudes in the space. Download your copy of this Finextra Survey Report, produced in association with Volante Technologies, to explore further.

07 July 2023 1392 downloads

White Paper

Can FIs lead the World's ESG charge with Pioneering and Transparent Data Visualisation?

Financial Services are quickly adapting to the changing sustainability demands of customers and new regulatory frameworks. Regulation is being dramatically reshaped such that financial organisations become increasingly obligated to make consciously ethical investment decisions, becoming responsible for non-compliant ESG parties in their own value chains. However, different rules and formats apply in different countries, which causes significant compliance challenges. At the same time, the client or consumer is becoming more aware and more expectant of sustainable and green policies committed to by their financial service provider. Sustainable financing comes handy in the wake of both risks and opportunities. There is an urgent requirement to enable and provide a level of transparency to customers around ESG markers and data. An increasing need for firms to obtain quantifiable and comparable metrics to determine the sustainability and longevity of a business they may invest in or work with. Download this Finextra report, produced in association with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which takes a view on the rapidly unfolding story of ESG within banking and financial services at large.

30 June 2023 338 downloads

Survey

From Cloud to Multicloud, Pathway to Resilience

The term multicloud has various interpretations, each offering different levels of resilience and reliability for bank payment platforms. Financial institutions may believe they have implemented a true multicloud model, but discrepancies in definitions can lead to confusion. Download this report to gain insights from an industry survey, conducted by Finextra in association with Form3, which was designed to glean the general attitude and approach multi-cloud infrastructure, perceived benefits and perceived challenges around implementation. Notably, it sought to establish the general awareness of various new and incoming regulations around resilience and systemic risk, of how cloud and cloud providers can navigate this and how much, if any, business opportunity firms see in resilience and risk compliance.

06 June 2023 373 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Digital Banking in Europe 2023

A Money20/20 Europe Special Edition Growth across the European fintech industry is fluctuating, and it is becoming increasingly evident that the record levels of funding and deals seen in 2021 will not happen again any time soon. As revealed by CB Insights, funding rose by a staggering 168% to reach $131.5 billion in 2021 from $49 billion in 2020 after fintech firms the likes of Klarna and Stripe achieving monumental valuations. However, 2022 saw rising interest rates, a cost-ofliving crisis and continued geopolitical instability which led to trillions in valuation being erased from public markets. Europe’s fintech sector remains at the core of the financial services industry, rather than at the fringes as it was once before. According to McKinsey, in each of the seven largest European economies measured by GDP – France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK – at least one fintech firm ranks among the top five banking institutions. This Finextra report, a Special Edition for Money 20/20 Europe, collates interviews with a range of leading players across the financial services and fintech industries operating across Europe and explores topics that will be covered at the event in Amsterdam. It features key insights from Accenture, ClearScore, Deutsche Bank, ING, Nium, Plum, Ripple, Société Générale, Tink, Visa, and Zopa that will discuss how digital banking across the continent will evolve.

05 June 2023 1010 downloads

Report

Embracing Technology to shape the Future of Digital Banking

There has been a tidal wave of transformation - the pace of it is accelerating, technology is proliferating, and customer behaviour and expectation are advancing all the time; the banking industry is in flux and it is a challenging time but also an exciting one. To successfully navigate this evolving landscape, financial institutions must stay attuned to the changing needs and preferences of customers and embrace emerging technologies to adapt and rethink their existing business models. There are a few business models that have been developed and discussed over the years. Open banking has ushered in new platforms as well, acting as aggregators of banking services and connecting different players in the ecosystem. Given the trajectory in the last couple of years, with digitalisation efforts in banking services having been accelerated by the pandemic, there will be yet more banking models to form. The digital experience can be much developed; new platforms, marketplaces and ecosystems will undoubtedly be created, and payment methods, which ultimately underpin financial services and commerce, are likely to undergo further evolution too. Download your copy of this Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with Worldline, which explores the current landscape of models and what factors may influence further evolution.

20 April 2023 603 downloads

Report

Mainframe Modernisation, the Digital Endgame

Mainframes have been in existence since the 1950s and a decade later, were partly responsible for putting man on the moon. It was one small step for computing, and one giant leap for organisations. Since then, mainframes have been the central nervous system that has underpinned many large organisations and as a result, have been involved in processing large volumes of transactions. However, the financial services industry is currently at a tipping point where mainframes need to be modernised and more cost effective to meet the needs of today’s customers. This is where the cloud comes in. Mainframe modernisation has become an essential, but ever evolving topic of discussion within all financial institutions embarking on a cloud journey or executing on the cloud. At the start of the century, banks were questioning the importance of the cloud and how to establish an adoption strategy around the technology. When Covid-19 hit, financial institutions needed to look beyond long-term success to enable progress at a faster, better, and cheaper rate. At a recent Finextra webinar, ‘Mainframe modernisation: Overcoming hurdles to achieve agility’, in association with Accenture and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the panel explored how ultimately, mainframe modernisation is now an element of risk management. This event report outlines the findings from that session.

13 March 2023 323 downloads

Report

UK Open Banking API Performance 2021-2022

The UK continues to be at the forefront of the global Open Banking revolution thanks to the proactive attitude of the regulators. These regulators helped create an Open Banking ecosystem that encourages and facilitates smaller banks and new entries, including fintechs and neobanks, to participate in the Open Banking market. As the most advanced Open Banking market in the world, the UK provides an example of best practices in the implementation of API-based Open Banking. We studied the performance of the large CMA9 UK banks, traditional High Street banks, credit card providers and building societies, and new entrant banks (neobanks). The endpoints were provided by the banks and measured using our patented APImetrics quality scoring system, CASC (Cloud API Service Consistency). Download your copy of this research report by APImetrics, which is generated from real API calls made using the FAPI compliant consent process with the partnership of tomato pay, a leading open banking provider in the UK. All calls were made between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.

26 October 2022 422 downloads

Report

The Future of Digital Banking in North America 2023

A Money20/20 USA Special Edition 2022 in North America saw a continuation of economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, fuelled by the rapid rollout of vaccinations particularly across the US and Canada. Although the US was the fastest of the G7 economies to recover from the crisis, an enduring impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict resulted in high inflation and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis is set to continue into 2023. These macrotrends are a catalyst for digital transformation within the financial services industry as banks attempt to grapple with new payments trends, the evolution of digital identity and innovative uses of data to enhance customer experience across retail, wholesale and commercial relationships. In 2022, digital banking for the consumer is far more advanced than the products and services that are available for merchants or large corporations. In 2023, open banking must be utilised to remedy this issue. For the retail customer, although digital methods of managing money are now part and parcel of day-to-day life, the pandemic encouraged, or in some cases, forced people who may have been uncomfortable with using technology to bank on their mobile phones or desktop computers. This unfamiliarity with technology has led to consumers being in environments in which they are vulnerable and at increased risk of fraud and other types of financial crime. In 2023, banks will need to ascertain what they need to adapt and strengthen in fraud prevention while also managing new regulatory and compliance requirements. Further, the areas of onboarding that need to be automated must also be considered as part of a holistic digital strategy, striking the balance between innovation and digital noise. For instance, Web3, the metaverse, digital assets and tokenisation are no longer the monopoly of global tech giants, but are increasingly being shaped by financial players who are having their relevance threatened. This Finextra report, which features expert views from ebankIT, EPAM Systems, Infosys Finacle, and Trustly, will explore topics that impact the digital banking sector and those that will be covered at Money20/20 USA 2022 in Las Vegas. Additionally, key insights from Wells Fargo, Plaid, Green Dot, Silicon Valley Bank, FXC Intelligence, Synapse, Navy Federal Credit Union, Branch, Citi, and the New York State Department of Financial Services will cover how organisations across North America are preparing for imminent change across the digital banking landscape.

21 October 2022 1154 downloads

Report

Banking as a Service: Predictions for 2023

Cloud strategies are changing After the financial crisis of 2008, traditional lenders experienced a drop in revenue and new players successfully gained traction after offering products that had been in high demand and long expected from existing banks. This trend advanced after regulators across the world endorsed open banking initiatives, data requirements were standardised and in turn, financial players gradually opened up to technology. With the transparency that open banking provides, banks were encouraged to offer digital services, fair pricing, and increased security. Further, they are forced to utilise application programming interfaces (APIs) for seamless information exchange between partners. This trend has since evolved: with open finance, APIs can facilitate the interchange of data, products and services in an attempt to improve customer experience, offer greater choice, and control over their finances. In 2020, the financial services industry - particularly banks - implemented emerging technologies to accelerate innovation across the infrastructure of core functions in real-time, and underlying trends that were previously being considered were utilised in weeks, rather than months or years. The coronavirus has led to relationships with consumers being reimagined and relationships with ecosystem partners being redefined; this also resulted in products and services being reconsidered. Technology providers are no longer just technology vendors: startups, scaleups and even unicorns are now viable collaborators for financial institutions. In this post-lockdown era, banks are tapping into this partnership model to enhance their digital transformation to keep pace with customer requirements and avoid being disrupted by newer, more technology-savvy, entrants. When banks work with technology companies, APIs can be built with a number of microservices that can communicate and connect with these third parties, building upon open finance solutions on cloud-based platforms. This allows financial institutions to scale on demand, pay for only what is consumed, and expand serverless architectures. Financial institutions are no longer considering the cloud – the cloud is necessary for how finance works today. An emerging yet burgeoning trend that will continue to evolve and grow in 2023 – banking as a service (BaaS) - offers a new route to market for banks and empowers them to attract new, niche customers by leveraging the cloud. BaaS also allows non-financial companies to push out financial products where and when they are needed, direct to their customers with minimal investment and with the benefit of cloud-based, pay-as-you-go pricing. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with i-exceed, explores how financial institutions and technology providers can collaborate to deploy mobile and web-based banking solutions at a faster rate.

20 October 2022 1005 downloads

Report

SaaS: The case for building a new banking business model

Why is SaaS pivotal to tackling regulatory, competition, and technology challenges? Banks are no longer only interested in building their infrastructure in order to serve their customers the best they can. Rather, they strive to position themselves as the orchestrators of API platforms. Software as a Service (SaaS) deployment models are the ideal tool to reduce the struggles faced by banks as their role evolves. SaaS models are highly effective, as they target some of the key challenges banks face in their efforts to digitally evolve while remaining competitive. An increasingly demanding customer base, competition from agile digital players, regulatory burdens and legacy technology are four of these significant hurdles that can be mitigated using SaaS. Not only does SaaS assist in managing these challenges, it can also equip financial institutions with the toolkit required to thrive in the future. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Temenos, explores how banks can best leverage technologies by third-party providers in order to mitigate industry pressures threatening their business model, adapt to shifts in customers' interaction behaviour, and improve their ability to remain competitive in an increasingly digital ecosystem.

03 October 2022 519 downloads

Report

Mainframe to Cloud: How to shift applications

The shift to the cloud The financial services industry is increasingly turning to the cloud to resolve challenges involving the movement of money. However, some banks, payments providers, capital markets firms and insurance companies are still questioning why an accelerated shift to the cloud is required. Further, what are the conditions, circumstances and considerations that should be taken into account when looking to migrate applications? It’s not just about technology. It’s about culture and the talent that is needed to transform from a legacy-based infrastructure and deal with a more agile method of operating and collaborating with partners in a cloud environment. This generational repositioning should be managed in an efficient manner to facilitate a successful, safe passage of moving from one domain to another. The mainframe, or the central repository, in an organisation’s data centre is usually linked to its users through workstations or terminals. Although the presence of a mainframe often implies a centralised form of computing, they are in dire need of modernisation. Those with awareness of how to transform the mainframe, how to consume the cloud, and who are able to to establish a strategic blueprint for their digital transition will be better positioned to retain their customer base. Each financial institution will have a different journey to the cloud: some will opt for a hybrid model, others will transform with the cloud or to the cloud. Mainframes present vast opportunities, but the time has come for the self-written applications and the mainframe-based business processes to be modernised. To explore these opportunities, specialists gathered for a Finextra webinar, ‘Mainframe Modernisation: The cloud shift’, that was hosted in association with Deloitte and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The webinar panel looked to discuss how mainframes can provide mission critical functionalities for financial institutions and the very specific challenges that come with modernising mainframes. This event report outlines the findings from that session.

05 September 2022 331 downloads

Report

The Future of Digital Banking in the UK 2022

The digital transformation of financial services remains a defining journey being undertaken by banks and fintechs across the globe. Increased digitisation of banking services after the Covid-19 pandemic, demonstrates how financial institutions are becoming more agile and better equipped to serve their end-customer. The future of banking is an industry reliant on cloud-based technology and partnerships with fintechs to drive their businesses forward. The digitisation of financial services through mobile apps, audio chatbots, and automation makes banking more personalised and convenient to users. However, accompanying this digitisation comes challenges such as cybersecurity and fraud, arising from this shift toward a digital ecosystem. Talent has never been in higher demand, and retaining strong employees with the right training is pivotal to succeeding digitally. By partnering with fintechs, banks are overcoming these challenges and navigating the new environment with the future front-of-mind. Featuring expert views from 10x Banking, Infosys Finacle, Mambu, and Salt Edge, and insights from Lloyds, first direct, OakNorth, and Santander, this Finextra report will explore how industry leaders perceive key events and trends defining the future of digital banking in the UK, during 2022 and beyond.

07 July 2022 1386 downloads

Report

The CIO’s guide to architecture modernisation through portability, resilience, and flexibility

Why CIOs need to shelve short-termism in favour of smart modernisation Every architecture decision a CIO makes directly impacts their bank’s competitiveness and success. This is truer than ever as competition and disruption from agile, fast-moving players continues to increase and they scoop up customers who are eager to interact in new ways with their financial services providers. The infrastructures on which the traditional financial services industry - and banks in particular - have been built aren’t holding up to this pressure. Their response? Singlethreaded point solutions, and lots of them. However, these aren’t solving problems for the long-term - or, arguably, even in the short-term. Rather, they’re exacerbating a growing architectural issue, adding to the inefficiency and lack of scalability of their IT environments. They’re also making it harder to get a clear, unified view of the whole estate. Instead, banks continue to accumulate technical debt, create integration headaches on a colossal scale, and ultimately fail to rise to the challenge that today’s financial services ecosystem demands. Of course, banks have legacy infrastructure to consider. Abandoning these investments isn’t an option. But building alongside them using cloud and new technology is. Banks need to consider how to bring together the operational domains of customer, application, infrastructure, and security. Through modernisation and automation - and combining the best of existing and new – they’ll be able to connect data silos, integrate systems, and enable real-time visibility to deliver improved services faster and more securely. The bottom line is, banks’ CIOs need to do more than merely resource the next project. They should be working towards increased visibility on all levels to provide long-term resilience for their organisations and most importantly, their customers. And whether success means enabling their global workforces to work from home today, tomorrow, or next year - or upping the game when it comes to customer interactions - they’ll be able to do that, and more, underpinned by a modern infrastructure. Download this Finextra impact study, produced in association with Tanium, to learn more.

14 June 2022 397 downloads

Survey

Payments Modernisation: The Big Survey 2022

How cloud, data-rich ecosystems and real-time digitisation are transforming the payments business This survey, conducted in early 2022, aimed to quantify the latest trends in payments modernisation, cloud and ‘as-a-service’ delivery models for account-to-account payments across corporate, SME and retail banking. It is a forward-looking annual report, which allows for an analysis over time of priority shifts for banks and their customers, and highlights areas where the trend towards digitisation and real-time payments are accelerating. The survey demonstrates there is a clear understanding of the benefits of consolidation of payment types, including operational and customer experience improvements. Progress to this goal highlights the trend towards outsourcing standardised processes such as payment processing to a capable and trusted partner, through the evolution to PaaS, allowing the financial institution to improve its overall operational efficiency and customer propositions. Download your copy of this Finextra Survey Report, produced in association with Volante Technologies, to learn more.

30 May 2022 895 downloads