PUBLISHED DATE: 2025-08-13 02:26:49
GLOBAL BANKING BENCHMARK STUDY 2022
Where are Canadian banks on their digital transformation journey?
The inside story from 56 senior Canadian banking leaders
To better understand the state of digital banking transformation in Canada, we surveyed 56 Canadian banking leaders to gather their insights. We asked them about the progress of their transformations, their main challenges, and how they are prioritizing their transformation strategies. Here’s a snapshot of what we found:
KEY STATS AT A GLANCE
- 86% have a clearly articulated strategy for their digital transformation.
- 36% have a fully agile operating model in place across the business.
- 73% said customer-centricity is driving key decisions across their organization.
- 66% said their organization has yet to make significant progress executing their transformation plans.
The top priorities in digital business transformation for banks in Canada are:
- 30%: Growing revenue with new products and/or service offerings
- 18%: Challenging the threat posed by new market entrants (e.g., Google, Apple, Amazon)
- 16%: Reducing costs through improved efficiency
- 13%: Growing revenue from existing products
- 13%: Improving the customer experience
- 5%: New customer acquisition
- 5%: Enabling greater agility
Barriers to Transformation
- 54% said their biggest transformation barrier was increased competition from direct competitors.
- 38% cited a lack of unified strategy or investment across business functions and leadership as a key barrier.
- 38% said old technology and legacy systems were the main thing holding them back.
Banks in Canada are fueling customer experience transformation.
We asked Canadian bankers about their main priorities in customer experience transformation over the next three years. Their focus areas are:
- 34% are focusing on unifying their customer data.
- 33% are prioritizing customer engagement.
- 33% are putting new financial products and services at the forefront of their transformation.
Prioritizing Tech Over Talent
When asked about their three key operational transformation focus areas, Canadian banks indicated that technology, rather than talent acquisition, is their main priority over the next three years.
- 48% said moving to a modern cloud-based core banking system was their key priority.
- 39% said strengthening their partner networks and ecosystems was at the top of their to-do list.
- 38% are investing in intelligent technologies to improve analysis of data, with the goal of accelerating their transformation.
How do Canadian banks think they stack up against the competition?
- 64% think they’re ahead of their competitors in using data and analytics to understand their customer base.
- 20% think they’re behind the competition in creating personalized customer experiences.
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)
- 86% say that ESG is a key driver of their digital transformation plans.
- 77% say they are doing more than is required by law on their ESG commitments.
- 57% don’t have the data, capabilities, or processes to evaluate their ESG performance.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I)
Just 50% of Canadian banking leaders say their organization has made commitments to DE&I.
For more information, contact: shashi.prabhu@publicissapient.com
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