2024年に注目すべきリテールバンキングの3つのテクノロジートレンド

To my eternal regret, I’ve never developed the ability to predict the future and I believe the same is true of my colleagues at Celent (or we’d presumably have more lottery winners around). Nevertheless, late each year we do try and predict some of the most important banking technology trends for the coming 12 months, which we publish in our annual Previsory report. An important input for this is our annual survey of technology decision makers at retail banks.

Based on this research, here are three of the most important trends to watch in 2024.

Trend 1: Banks will continue to invest in agility

Laying the foundations for greater agility is one of the standout technology themes of 2024. In the face of a challenging operating environment, many banks are focusing on how to be able to respond quickly to emerging product or customer-level opportunities; something that reflects the broader cultural change underway in the industry. The growth of the fintech sector has undoubtedly catalysed fresh thinking among incumbents about how best to approach technology investments, as well as software development and delivering product innovation. It has also led to new perspectives over what a truly modern technology stack both looks like and can enable.

At a global level, 57% of the banks responding to our latest survey cited delivering greater speed and agility as a top three strategic priority for their technology investments in 2023/24. This is the single biggest theme for the industry overall, ahead of considerations such as regulatory compliance, legacy modernisation and increasing operational efficiency.

One standout theme within this is the growing focus on automation.While the concept of RPA is not new, there is a growing emphasis on “intelligent automation”, which brings together the principles of RPA alongside AI technologies such as NLP and machine learning. The aim here is to unlock value in workflows such as account opening to enhance customer experiences and reduce operational costs. This is high on the agenda for banks in all regions and is the single most important technology investment priority for the industry overall in 2023/24.

Also important is the growing interest in low code tools and interfaces for product and other mission-critical applications. Capacity limitations in the technology function can result in product improvement projects failing to be approved, being de-scoped, or cancelled. In short, the opposite of agility. Across the industry, 41% report that they are exploring use cases or experimenting with low code, while a further 31% have this is on their 2023/24 roadmap.

Trend 2: A deepening focus on Open Banking, BaaS, and Embedded Finance

Banks are steadily growing their investments in the open ecosystem (open banking, BaaS, and embedded finance), with 75% sharing they have a clear strategy to engage in this space in the year ahead. Indeed, the focus has already pivoted from theory to practice for many banks, with 60% reporting that they’re now generating commercial gains from their open ecosystem activities.

Looking more closely at open banking, the momentum in this area will continue to build. Many banks plan to grow their investments in this area, and further regulatory action will support the expansion of the broader ecosystem. Indeed, one of the big shifts in 2023 was the growing consensus over the need for regulators to be more active in reducing common barriers, such as incomplete market coverage, inconsistencies in interpreting standards, and points of friction in the user experience. Also important is the recognition of the need for the better alignment of costs and incentives across the value chain.

In embedded finance, there is a growing understanding that succeeding in this space requires new thinking and new technology. Banks need to raise their game in managing partner relationships, particularly around compliance and risk, and should also explore a growing range of solutions aimed at helping scale embedded finance.

Trend 3: Banks will continue to experiment with Gen AI

No review of what’s ahead in 2024 would be complete without a reference to Gen AI. While it is still early days for the technology at enterprise level, particularly in a heavily regulated sector such as banking, the potential is certainly clear.

This view shows two themes from our most recent survey of bank technology decision markets. The first is the degree to which banks are currently experimenting with each technology or emerging business model. The second is a ranking showing which the industry expects will have the greatest impact in five years.

Source: Celent Technology Insight and Strategy Survey 2023

Unsurprisingly, Gen AI tops the list in terms of experimentation and is seen as having a big future impact. Over 41% of banks currently looking at use cases or otherwise testing this technology, while a further 31% have projects on their 2023/24 roadmap. The range of use cases in play is broad, but there are already banks in the market that are live with the use of Generative AI to support a range of internal workflows in areas such as the contact centre and customer-facing agents.

Time will tell if these predictions are accurate, but I look forward to reviewing them in early 2025!