Latest Cloud reports and research: Finextra Research

Event Report

The Outsourcing Imperative: The strategic importance of partnerships for cloud-based payments

The financial services industry is at a pivotal moment where cloud technology and strategic outsourcing offer pathways to enhanced operational efficiency and competitiveness. Explore the Outsourcing Imperative. In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, managing complex financial systems has become increasingly challenging for banking providers. The demands of mature cloud technology, evolving payment rails, and channels such as real-time cross-border payments and stablecoins require innovative solutions. Additionally, regulatory differences by country and region add another layer of complexity, especially for banks operating across multiple borders. With the buzz around generative AI and other emerging tools, financial institutions must consider outsourcing certain functions to maintain competitiveness and efficiency. Enhancing user experience and regulatory compliance are paramount, as customers now expect a variety of payment options, from digital wallets to AI-driven payment agents. Outsourcing becomes key in today’s payments landscape, and financial institutions are increasingly turning to Payments as a Service (PaaS) to navigate the complexities of modern banking operations. This report highlights the key takeaways of a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with FIS, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: Drivers for adopting cloud-based payments; Why banks and cloud are still an unfinished story; Why outsourcing is necessary in today's payments landscape; and How banks can change the status quo through partnerships.

30 July 2025 3 downloads

Event Report

Modern payments excellence: Exploring diversification of channels, orchestration, and regulation

In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, integrating new payment channels has become essential for institutions aiming to stay competitive. Whether it's card-based, account-to-account, instant, or mobile—technological advancements and changing consumer preferences drive the need for diversified payment methods, requiring a strategic approach by banks often still too burdened by legacy to ensure seamless customer experiences and robust compliance. Financial institutions must not only navigate architectural complexities, but balance this with regulatory demands, and the integration of new technologies, all while maintaining the agility to adapt to future innovations. Managing these challenges effectively is crucial for serving clients and customers in the best way possible, providing them with a wide range of choices and ensuring the availability of services in a time where outages still too often make the news. Leveraging modern technologies like tokenisation and APIs, financial institutions can create dynamic systems that cater to diverse consumer needs, enabling seamless management of multiple products and accounts. This openness is key to fostering resilience and driving change within the industry. This report highlights the key takeaways of a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Diebold Nixdorf, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: How banks can keep pace in a digital, instant world; Ensuring payments resilience and the impact of regulation; Key modern infrastructure requirements; and The benefits of microservices architecture.

25 July 2025 61 downloads

Report

PaaS, cloud and instant payments: Navigating the outsourcing question

Today’s institutions are in some ways faced with far greater challenges than ever before. Be it from the demand for ever-faster services; the pressure of always-on compliance; or the need to remain agile and competitive. Is PaaS the holy grail FIs have been looking for? Outsourcing payments is an increasingly irresistible proposition for FIs. With end-user demand constantly evolving; real-time requirements on the rise; macro-economic trends becoming ever more unpredictable; and the pressure of regulatory compliance ratcheting up, the provision of proprietary payments has become a thorny pursuit. Enter the stage: cloud technology. By leveraging modern tools and techniques to build, deploy, run, and manage software in a cloud-computing environment, FIs of all kinds can take advantage of scalability, elasticity, and automation. But the benefits of Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) can extend beyond these practicalities – serving to revolutionise bank operations, unlock broader efficiencies, and enrich the end-user experience. Mining this potential, however, obliges institutions to navigate some challenges. First, FIs must understand the potential of cloud-native technology as an engine for modernisation and embrace the cultural shift that is triggered by cuttingedge technologies. It may involve training, testing and concerted integration efforts. Another key challenge is delegation: which tasks should be handed to third parties, and which should remain in-house? Indeed, when systems evolve, FIs must always keep one eye on compliance. As ever, approach and growth potential are directly impacted by the type and size of the institution in question, so approaches should be tailored. This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with FIS, evaluates: The key considerations when placing client transaction data in the public cloud; The art of delegation: Determining which tasks to offload; The role of regulation and compliance; and A PaaS checklist for finding the right solutions and partnerships. Register to watch the related Finextra webinar, hosted in association with FIS – PaaS, cloud and instant payments in the spotlight: Overcoming outsourcing challenges

09 June 2025 332 downloads

Impact Study

Surviving digital fallout: Operational resilience in 2025 and beyond

Almost every financial institution loses money each year to outages. What does an optimal resilience strategy look like in 2025? The financial sector is increasingly dependent on technology to deliver its offering. Notwithstanding all the benefits this brings for productivity, reach, and customer satisfaction, its side effect is that the sector is increasingly vulnerable to network and software issues, third-party service slip-ups, cyberattacks, and capacity problems. If not managed correctly, a compromised IT system can spark knock-on disruptions to financial institutions, the firms they trade with, their supply chains, and even the economy-at-large. To mitigate such risks, the global marketplace has been flooded with regulations aimed at bolstering operational resilience. Most recently, Europe’s answer has been the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) – the deadline for which passed on 17 January 2025. However, these regulations are only guidelines; they mandate a minimum level for compliance, instead of an ideal strategy to holistically handle outages. In this Finextra impact study, produced in association with Cockroach Labs, we speak with leading firms in the space to understand the best-in-class strategies they have adopted to achieve operational resilience. In the most effective cases, firms go beyond compliance, and exploit regulations as a business opportunity to stimulate productivity, increase competitiveness, and reduce costs. In today’s increasingly digital marketplaces, architectures must be operationally simple and flexible, as well as global and robust. We explore: The growing challenge of outages; Regulation, DORA, and resilience requirements; What an optimal resilience strategy should look like in 2025 and beyond; How organisations can future proof their operations while staying agile for future regulatory requirements.

05 June 2025 196 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of US Digital Payments 2025: ACH & Beyond

A special edition for Nacha's Smarter Faster Payments 2025. The US digital payments landscape stands at a transformative crossroads. With the launch of RTP in 2016 and FedNow in 2023, the foundational infrastructure for instant payments is finally in place - poised to revolutionise the speed, efficiency, and security of transactions across the economy. Yet despite these advancements, the path to widespread adoption remains complex and cautious. Entrenched systems like ACH and Wire, with their deep integration and long-standing reliability, continue to dominate due to their established utility and the significant investment required to pivot toward newer rails. It’s not just a question of technological readiness, but of mindset, cost, and strategy. The advantages of instant payments—real-time access to funds, reduced credit risk, and improved liquidity—are clear. However, to truly unlock these benefits, banks and institutions must overcome the inertia of legacy systems and embrace modernisation, often with the support of flexible, cloud-native solutions that can de-risk and streamline the transition. This Finextra report, in association with Form 3, explores industry sentiment on the future of US digital payments and showcases the views of BNY, Citizens, Green Dot, J.P. Morgan, U.S. Bank, and the US Faster Payments Council. It explores: Evolving ACH infrastructure; Enhancing RPT and FedNow capabilities; How new rails interact with existing rails; Redefining transactional architecture through emerging technologies; Recognising risk as a strategic advantage in fraud prevention; Prioritising innovation and compliance at the same time.

25 April 2025 390 downloads

Impact Study

Cross-border payments: How is the market addressing G20 targets?

This impact study explores how far along the G20’s cross-border roadmap firms have travelled; why cutting-edge technology platforms are imperative in today’s instant payments world; as well as how financial leaders can go beyond the G20’s objectives, in order to ensure prosperity for the coming decade. The cross-border payments market is one of the fastest growing money movement markets in the world. It reached $150 trillion in 2017, and by 2027 is expected to reach $250 trillion – a rise of over $100 trillion in just ten years. There are several factors that have led to the increase in global remittances, be they wholesale or retail in origin, including expanding supply chains; globalised investment flows; international trade and e-commerce; as well as the increased global movement of people, resulting in more money being sent across borders. While cross-border payments are booming, many financial institutions are still struggling to keep their technology platforms up to speed, and the drive toward real-time is having deep ramifications for organisations’ operations. To address these challenges, a gathering of some of the world’s largest economies, known as the Group of Twenty (G20), set out a roadmap in 2021 to improve cross-border payments. Also providing impetus for widespread modernisation are mandated initiatives like new, and continually evolving, ISO 20022 message and data standards and the European Union (EU)’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) – forcing players in the highly-competitive payments space to invest in smarter services, customer centricity, and on top of that, become the engines of growth. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Temenos, explores: A status update on the G20 cross-border targets; The need for modernisation - an overview of other factors affecting cross-border payments; A roadmap for change beyond G20; Real-life case studies.

19 February 2025 490 downloads

Event Report

AI strategies for scalable, secure and compliant banking

Delving into effective strategies and tools for secure and compliant AI integration in banking, emphasising the importance of open-source models, the role of generative AI, the advantages of synthetic data, and the influence of regulatory frameworks. Integrating AI in banking involves more than just adopting new technologies; it requires aligning these technologies with specific banking use cases to maximise benefits and mitigate risks related to data security and compliance. Open-source models facilitate this transformation by offering a collaborative platform for innovation and transparency, essential for building trust and ensuring the safe use of AI in banking. The journey from proof of concept (POC) to production in AI and machine learning is often lengthy and complex. This extended timeline highlights the challenges organisations face in integrating AI into their operations. Embracing new tools and technologies and learning to utilise them effectively is crucial for overcoming these challenges and applying AI to day-to-day operations, leading to significant benefits in efficiency and innovation. When looking at other markets, the United States has become a hub for tech giants, focusing on fostering innovation, while regions like Japan remain cautious, reflecting their unique regulatory landscapes and societal risk appetites. This diversity in regulatory approaches presents both opportunities and challenges for firms operating globally, necessitating a nuanced understanding of each market’s unique dynamics. This webinar report summarises the discussion of a Finextra webinar, hosted with Red Hat, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: How AI is enhancing innovation, efficiency, and security; Synthetic data and regulatory impact; What factors are holding organisations back from fully adoption AI-driven services; Balancing innovation and regulation; And more.

07 February 2025 335 downloads

White Paper

UK Open Banking API Performance 2023-2024

In this fourth annual report, APIContext evaluated the performance of UK Open Banking APIs from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. The UK’s Open Banking system is arguably the most advanced in the world, having been in place since at least 2018. The time in market for this ecosystem offers lessons and best practices to other countries that are looking to implement similar API-driven financial systems; as well as banks and financial institutions that seek to differentiate through quality customer experiences. In this updated report, APIContext evaluates the performance of Open Banking APIs provided by various types of financial institutions in the UK. These include the major “CMA9” banks (the nine largest banks required by UK law to provide Open Banking services), traditional High Street banks, credit card companies, building societies (similar to credit unions in the United States), and new digital banks, often called neobanks. All the data in this report are based on real API calls, having tested the APIs in real-world conditions using the same process that consumers would go through. These calls followed the FAPI (Financial-grade API) standards, which are specifically designed for securely sharing sensitive financial data. The report includes: Key analysis of the UK's Open Banking API performance 2023 - 2024 Availability and reliability of API endpoints Latency metrics (DNS, TCP connect, SSL handshake, processing, and total time) Performance by cloud provider (AWS, IBM, Azure, and Google) Comparative analysis between different bank types (CMA9, traditional, and neobanks) Cloud provider comparison and other detailed findings Key takeaways and recommendations for various players in the ecosystem

13 January 2025 505 downloads

Impact Study

Catering to a new generation through unified card programmes

How Gen Z is changing the payments landscape, why operational costs are soaring, and how a unified card programme can help financial institutions to unlock a competitive advantage and drive growth. Globalisation continues to shape the market as money moves between banks, businesses and even countries quicker and in higher numbers than ever before. Both debit and credit cards remain vital in today’s payment experience but changing consumer demands and the surging popularity of neobanks leave traditional banks fighting for top-of-wallet status. On one hand, traditional banks are battling surging operational costs. From a functionality point of view, the world is getting smaller. Today, there is not much perceived difference to the consumer between debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid cards. Yet behind the scenes, many banks run each of these products in different platforms and set-ups, each racking up its own costs. Add to this mix services like personal loans/buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes and increasing regulatory demands, you have created the perfect storm: Having to bolt on a new, disparate system every time the services are extended – which costs time, money, and adds high regulatory burden. On the other hand, the consumer expectations of a new generations are shaping the market. Gen Z’s preference for digital, seamless payment methods is changing the financial landscape and traditional banks need to adapt their service offerings in order to match these new demands. This impact study, produced in association with FIS, explores: Increasing cost pressures: Why operational costs are soaring How a new generation is shaping the payments landscape Tackling change: The benefits of a unified card programme Case studies: A practical approach to change Watch the on-demand Finextra webinar with FIS - Unifying card programmes: The cost-reduction imperative

06 December 2024 252 downloads

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

31 October 2024 597 downloads

Event Report

Managing Fraud Risks with Synthetic Data

A Practical Approach for Businesses Services Industry The financial services sector is in a constant state of evolution, and so too are the challenges it faces, particularly in the realm of financial crime. This mounting issue has become a significant concern for institutions, customers and regulators alike. The key to addressing this lies in our approach to data - its quality, management, and applications. Harnessing the power of synthetic data and AI tools has become a pivotal factor in business transformation, particularly in addressing the issue of financial crime. The ability to streamline operations and enhance efficiency is a major challenge businesses face, but the introduction of synthetic data offers promising solutions. Synthetic data provides a comprehensive view of all types of crime, a feature that is crucial for global banks often grappling with segmented fraud activity. This broader perspective enhances the institutions’ capability to effectively fight financial crime. This report summarises the discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Red Hat, and explores: The role of synthetic data in combatting financial crime Implications of new regulation How synthetic data enhances crime detection A practical apprach for managing fraud risk

22 October 2024 278 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Payments 2025 – Digital, Instant, Profitable?

A Sibos Special Edition The global payments landscape is in a period of rapid transition, with technologies and regulations making a serious impact. Yet looking to the future of the payments industry, how can we ensure that it is digital, instant, and profitable? While consumer behaviours continue to evolve in tandem with this. Artificial intelligence (AI), tokenised assets, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), Blockchain, and even more pioneering technologies are shaking up the payments systems all in their own way. Adding to this atmosphere of flux, is an developing regulatory framework which promises to alter this situation further. Regulators are facing an uphill battle attempting to legislate on emerging technologies while keeping consumers safe, and providing the best outcome for payment service providers (PSPs). As we move towards milestones like open finance and more rapid payments, there is a chance the payment ecosystem could look quite different within the next few years. Under these growing pressures, global payments organisations will need to ensure that they are able to bend and adapt to the circumstance, or risk snapping. Never has it been more important for PSPs to collaborate with each other, and regulators, to ensure the best outcomes. This Sibos 2024 special edition report, was produced with contributions from Accenture, Deloitte, EBA CLEARING, Finastra, FIS Global, Investec, J.P. Morgan, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, PPI AG, Swift, and Wise. It explores: The evolution of instant payments in 2025; The modernisation correspondent banking and cross border payments; Preparing the upcoming EU payments legislation; The key to successful digitalisation; The technology innovations reshaping the payments sector.

17 October 2024 1054 downloads

White Paper

Beyond Tomorrow In The Capital Markets

Technology has long been transforming the capital markets industry, but the tides are changing for what is considered success. Now more than ever, firms need to prioritise operational resilience. Technological advances are indisputably reshaping how firms in the capital markets operate, however, as the reliance on technology grows, so does the impact of glitches and outages when they occur. Take the CrowdStrike global outage, for example, which caused an estimated $1.15BN and $140M in financial losses for the banking and financial sectors respectively. The consecutive outages expose the fragility of technical infrastructure and underscore a need for better operational resilience across the capital markets. It also reiterates the importance of preparing for the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), implementing uniform operational resilience rules for financial entities throughout Europe, and its equivalents elsewhere. This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with CJC, explores: The challenges in the capital markets industry; How institutions can address these challenges; Ensuring future resilience by bridging the skills gap; Real-world case studies; And more.

09 September 2024 218 downloads

Impact Study

Microservices Architecture: Future-Proofing Payments Technology

It is high time for banks to move away from legacy thinking and embrace modernisation to remain competitive in the industry. Financial institutions have long been threatened by innovative, tech-savvy fintech firms that do not have to maintain decades-old back-office systems. Core banking systems within banks have evolved, but with additional pressure from incoming regulation and subsequent reporting, progression and modernisation has not kept pace with industry developments. In the US alone, the real-time payments market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% until 2030. An institution’s success in scaling their payment processing in response to this shift will rest heavily on how their systems are set up. Cloud-native payments processing is the most viable option to keep pace with innovation demand and competition; enabling banks to build upon flexibility, at low cost and risk. These enablers also make cloud infrastructure – both public and private – attractive for banks that have struggled to streamline, maintain and upgrade their legacy infrastructures. This Finextra research paper, produced in association with Diebold Nixdorf, explores the opportunities of microservices architecture. It discusses: Then & Now: Monolithic vs. microservices architecture Overcoming microservice challenges The benefits of a micro-approach Real-world examples and cases studies And more. Click here to join the Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Diebold Nixdorf, to watch as our panel of iindustry experts explore the benefits of microservices architecture, and what needs to be done to ensure migrations are streamlined.

27 August 2024 435 downloads

Survey

Payments Modernisation: The Big Survey 2024

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Big Survey. Our annual report, surveying 350 senior bankers across the globe, offers a unique vantage point on the ever-evolving landscape of payments modernisation. Over the years, we’ve uncovered fresh developments and enduring challenges alike, painting a detailed picture of the industry’s trajectory. As we navigate 2024, the financial services sector is in the midst of profound transformation. Our latest insights highlight the critical need to modernise payment systems swiftly and effectively, driven by rising customer expectations and stringent regulatory demands. Download our 2024 survey, produced in association with Volante, to learn about: The current state of capabilities Why payments architecture is more flexible than ever before Financial institutions’ budgets and spending priorities The global drive towards real-time and cross-border And much more.

13 June 2024 1166 downloads