What experts expect from a next-generation banking platform for 2030 and beyond 

According to the survey, the key topics for further developing the business model in the interests of customers are the integration of services into the customer journey, the targeted use of artificial intelligence, the redesign of digital channels and the merging of user interfaces.

The survey shows a strong tendency to expand the role of the bank beyond traditional financial services. A clear majority expects the NGBP to enable the support of customers throughout their entire ‘customer journey’, facilitating integration into different areas of life – so-called ecosystems. The areas most frequently mentioned were ‘living’, ‘financial freedom’ and ‘business services’ (in the B2B sector, e.g. accounting, legal advice, etc.). This underscores the expectation that banking transactions will in future be seamlessly integrated into broader contexts such as real estate purchases, retirement provision and corporate governance. In the ecosystems of health, nutrition & consumption and public service, only a minority of respondents expect the integration of services in such a way. 

Less common is the expectation to integrate banking functions into everyday objects beyond smartphones. While payments and other banking functions via smartphone, digital wallet (payment app that stores cards for everyday shopping and is linked to e-banking) or smartwatch are considered established, the attitude towards more far-reaching integration (e.g. in cars or household appliances) is very cautious. Several participants suggested that banks should leave this field to specialised technology providers. 

Figure 2: devices and everyday objects supported by the NGBP

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as a decisive factor for the future viability of banks. For the institutions themselves, the main focus is on efficiency gains and improving the customer experience. AI is intended to optimise processes and help provide faster and more tailored services. Autonomous AI decisions, particularly when it comes to risky processes such as lending, are viewed with caution, also with reference to regulatory hurdles such as the EU AI Act. 

From the customer’s point of view, AI should primarily contribute to personalisation. The most frequently mentioned requirement is an AI system that makes it possible to ‘automatically tailor the service precisely to the customer’. Enabling customers to design their own services through data enhancement is also highly regarded. AI is seen as a tool for strengthening customer autonomy and creating a personalised banking experience, for example through digital assistants or advisory avatars. Only a handful of people expect AI to take the form of a digital butler that deals with customers independently of their banks. 

Figure 3: AI support for customers used by the NGBP 

The outlook for digital access in the future is mixed. Although traditional e-banking on mobile devices and PCs will continue to play a role, almost as many respondents expect a cross-channel, integrated customer experience in the future. Interaction with the bank should no longer be limited to an app or website, but should take place directly (interaction with the bank) and indirectly (integrated with partners, visible or invisible to customers) wherever the customer needs it. However, only a minority expect a comprehensive customer portal for the entire customer relationship, with features such as product management across all divisions (including integrated services), multi-banking capability (integration of accounts from other banks), budget tools and self-service, e.g. for making appointments. 

Figure 4: design of the digital customer channel in the NGBP

Some respondents were in favour of a uniform solution where customers and advisers – controlled by permissions – access the same systems in order to promote transparency and collaboration. A slightly smaller group advocated for dedicated, separate systems, as the requirements and complexity of the tasks were too different for employees and customers.

There is broad consensus on the requirements for the user interface (UI). A future interface must be responsive, customisable and role-based. An integrated dashboard for the relationship manager is expected as standard. Almost all participants consider the combination of the graphical interface with AI-supported voice and text input to be essential, which points to more intuitive and dialogue-oriented interaction in the future. However, a graphical user interface will still be necessary; only a minority believe that the NGBP user interface will work solely with speech recognition and prompting. 

The integration of third-party providers and fintechs is seen as essential for a modern banking platform. The survey shows that the greatest need for such integrations is seen in the areas of customer relationship management (CRM), portfolio management, e-banking, compliance & fraud and card management. This suggests that banks want to make targeted use of external innovations to improve core processes and enrich the customer experience.

At the same time, the concept of open banking, whereby end customers access banking functions via third parties, is viewed pragmatically. Support is highest in the areas of payment transactions and investments, and somewhat lower for financing. This reflects an attitude of strategic openness: interfaces will be opened up where there are clear customer benefits and business models. Simple open access for end customers via third parties is not envisaged, and the mandatory approval of third-party providers (TPPs) is also viewed critically – the banks do not want to relinquish control. 

In order to manage the complexity of the connected internal and external services, there is broad consensus on the need for a service integration layer. This central layer is designed to bundle services from different providers and orchestrate them according to uniform standards. What is interesting, however, is the variety of operating models envisaged: the answers range from in-house operation to operation by a partner to the complete procurement of the layer as a service from a third party. It was also mentioned several times under ‘Other’ that there is no single best option here, but rather that the choice of model depends heavily on the individual IT strategy. 

Figure 7: operation of a service integration layer in the NGBP

The use of data through business intelligence (BI) has been identified as a key lever for future viability. The most frequently selected, desired use cases for BI in an NGBP were:

• A 360-degree customer view: the targeted use of customer data for proactive and personalised support.
• Data-driven banking: supporting internal decisions to increase efficiency.
• Risk management and fraud detection: the analysis of data for credit assessment and anomaly detection.

Within the scope of BI, respondents expect an NGBP to support use cases such as customer data management, product performance management (revenue and costs per product, transaction volume per channel, etc.) and predictive analytics (credit defaults, scenario simulation for economic downturns or interest rate changes).

To achieve these goals, respondents are relying on modern BI approaches. First and foremost is self-service BI, which enables business users without in-depth IT knowledge to carry out analyses independently. This promotes a data-driven culture throughout the company. In terms of technology, the trend towards cloud-based and hybrid BI platforms (e.g. with a central data lake that enables comprehensive data analysis) is confirmed, offering scalability and cost advantages. In future, data sources will not only include data from our own applications, but increasingly also publicly available data and – with explicit consent – data voluntarily shared by customers and partner companies.

Across all topics, there is overwhelming agreement on the importance of robust data management. Functions such as data lifecycle management and an operational data store are considered ‘very important’ or ‘important’. This underscored the awareness that advanced data analysis, data quality and compliance with regulatory requirements (e.g. targeted deletion of data) are only possible on a neatly managed and well-structured data foundation.

The role of quantum computers is widely seen as an issue for the future. A large number of participants believe that this technology will provide significant support only for the next next-generation banking platform. Its impact on the NGBP of 2030 and beyond is estimated to be low. The potential application scenarios are mainly in the management of highly complex computing operations such as risk management, fraud detection and portfolio optimisation. However, respondents see an immediate and urgent application in the field of cybersecurity, specifically in post-quantum cryptography, in order to secure data against future threats today. 

The era of all-encompassing core banking systems is coming to an end. The survey results indicate a consensus that the ‘core’ of the future will be reduced to its essential functions. These undoubtedly include the booking engine for items that can be included in the balance sheet (general ledger) as a ‘single source of truth’ and customer account management with all transactions and securities account management (subledger). 

Opinions differ when it comes to future architecture, even though the trend is clearly moving towards modularity. 

• Model 1: the modular core. The majority of respondents favour an architecture consisting of modules linked to a booking engine. This model represents the further development of current systems, offering more flexibility without abandoning the concept of a central anchor.
• Model 2: decentralised architecture. A forward-looking minority envisages an architecture consisting of flexible, independently running functional modules in which the concept of the ‘core’ disappears altogether. This concept, which relies heavily on microservices and decoupled systems, promises maximum agility and scalability. 
  

Regardless of the model chosen, one thing is clear: the future is modular. The monolithic ‘all-in-one’ solution has become obsolete. 

The demand for real-time data processing is overwhelming, especially considering that banks are still a long way from achieving this today. A large majority of participants consider it imperative that transactions, positions and valuations are processed in an NGBP without delay, with real-time simulations also considered crucial. Although there are isolated individuals that still consider batch processing to be sufficient for certain processes (e.g. end-of-day portfolio performance reporting), the standard for customer-related and transactional processes should clearly be real time.

The most frequently mentioned requirements for increasing the speed of innovation are an API-first approach, agile product management with low-code/no-code and support for new asset classes such as crypto assets. 

The consistent development of interfaces (APIs) is a prerequisite for the seamless integration of products and services into ecosystems (see The bank as an integrated everyday companion). Banking professionals should also be able to configure products themselves using graphical interfaces, without the need for complex programming work. 

The ability to manage crypto assets and currencies is seen by many as a new standard requirement for a future-proof system. 

Less than half of respondents expect customers to be able to assemble their own services independently from a modular system – both within and across banks.