The banking industry is undergoing a significant digital transformation. The emergence of fintechs and industry disruptors is forcing traditional banks to innovate faster than ever before to remain competitive and address the needs of the digital-first customer. Delivering these solutions effectively and at speed often requires an overhaul of legacy technology and the emergence of new technological-driven processes. Enter DevOps, a combination of practices and tools that is driving the future of the financial services industry.
We spoke with Arnab Mitra, programme manager at the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) about the role of DevOps in banking and the need for industry collaboration to further accelerate transformation.
Q1: What challenges have traditionally hindered banks from adopting DevOps, and how has the industry’s perspective shifted to embrace this methodology?
Traditionally, banks were slow to adopt DevOps due to regulatory constraints, concerns about data security, and a legacy mindset that is naturally more hesitant towards change and innovation. However, the pandemic accelerated the need for banks to offer digital services, which in turn hastened the adoption of DevOps.
As the benefits of DevOps became clear, banks have realised that they needed to embrace this methodology to remain competitive and keep pace with nimbler fintechs, while offering new services that are enabled through best-of-breed technologies. In today’s rapidly evolving IT landscape, DevOps streamlines transformation and enables banks to deliver innovative digital services at speed and scale.
With the global drive for transformation, banks recognised that if they don’t transform, they risk being left behind, and at a significant cost. For example, a 2023 IDC Financial Insights survey found global banks are on track to spend $57.1 billion on legacy payments technology in 2028.
It’s therefore no surprise that over 80% of financial services firms have embraced DevOps practices, reflecting the widespread adoption and recognition of its benefits in the industry.
Q2: What is BIAN’s approach to DevOps? How is this reflected in BIANs offerings?
BIAN is built on collaboration across the industry and we use DevOps methodology within our member activities to encourage this. Working groups formed of members from different organisations within banks, technology vendors and consultancies come together to share thoughts, ideas and experiences to collaborate on innovative solutions, for example producing API specifications.
Another example is our Coreless Banking initiative, which completed its third iteration last year. BIAN took a DevOps approach to this initiative, which was developed by a collaboration of leading banks and technology vendors, including HSBC, Zafin and IBM. The initiative, which aims to tackle the interoperability challenges banks face, resulted in an API-based services architecture that empowers banks to integrate best-of-breed…
Read More: Transforming Banking with DevOps – DevOps Online
