Coreless Banking in Emerging Markets: Challenges and Opportunities

The Promise of Coreless Banking

Emerging markets are at a pivotal moment in their financial evolution. As banks in these regions seek to leapfrog legacy constraints and accelerate digital transformation, coreless banking architectures are emerging as a powerful enabler. By decoupling banking services from monolithic core systems and leveraging cloud-native, composable platforms, banks can rapidly innovate, scale, and deliver customer experiences that rival those in mature markets—often at a fraction of the cost and time.

Unique Challenges in Emerging Markets

While the benefits of coreless banking are clear, the journey in emerging markets is shaped by a distinct set of challenges:

1. Limited Infrastructure

Many banks in emerging economies operate in environments where digital infrastructure is still developing. Legacy systems, unreliable connectivity, and limited access to cloud services can slow transformation. However, cloud-native coreless platforms are designed to be flexible and scalable, allowing banks to deploy solutions that fit their current capabilities while laying the groundwork for future growth.

2. Regulatory Complexity

Regulatory environments in emerging markets are often fragmented and rapidly evolving. Banks must navigate local compliance requirements, data residency laws, and shifting expectations around open banking and data privacy. Successful coreless banking transformations require close collaboration with regulators and the ability to adapt architectures to meet local standards without sacrificing agility.

3. Rapid Digital Adoption

Emerging markets are experiencing a surge in digital adoption, driven by mobile-first consumers and a growing appetite for financial inclusion. This creates both opportunity and pressure: banks must deliver seamless, secure, and innovative digital experiences at speed, while ensuring that new platforms are robust and scalable enough to handle rapid growth.

4. Customer Experience Expectations

Consumers in emerging markets are increasingly demanding personalized, omnichannel experiences. Banks must move beyond basic digital offerings to deliver services that are intuitive, accessible, and tailored to local needs. Coreless architectures enable this by allowing banks to quickly assemble and iterate on new products and services, leveraging data and ecosystem partnerships.

Overcoming Barriers: Publicis Sapient’s Approach

Publicis Sapient has partnered with leading banks across Asia, Africa, and Latin America to deliver coreless banking solutions that address these challenges head-on:

• Coexistence, Not Big Bang: Rather than risky, all-at-once migrations, we advocate for a coexistence model—running legacy and modern cores in parallel. This approach reduces risk, allows for incremental innovation, and ensures business continuity during transformation.
• Cloud-Native, Composable Platforms: By leveraging platforms like Thought Machine’s Vault and Mambu’s SaaS core, banks can build modular, scalable solutions that adapt to local infrastructure and regulatory needs. These platforms support rapid product launches and seamless integration with fintech partners.
• Customer-Centric Design: Our SPEED methodology—integrating strategy, product, experience, engineering, and data—ensures that every transformation is anchored in customer needs and business value. This approach has enabled banks to launch new digital products in as little as 12 weeks, even in highly regulated environments.
• Ecosystem Partnerships: We help banks build robust partner ecosystems, connecting with fintechs, payment providers, and cloud vendors to accelerate innovation and expand reach.

Real-World Impact: Case Studies

• A Leading Thai Retail Bank: In just 12 weeks, Publicis Sapient and Thought Machine delivered a new business model and technical foundation for a major Thai bank. The result: rapid innovation, strict regulatory compliance, and a platform ready to scale with the bank’s ambitions.
• Siam Commercial Bank (SCB): SCB’s transformation into a platform-as-a-service leader in Southeast Asia demonstrates the power of coreless banking to unlock new value, drive financial inclusion, and accelerate digital product development.
• Bangkok Bank: By launching a customer-first mobile app at speed, Bangkok Bank simplified banking for millions, proving that coreless architectures can deliver both agility and resilience in emerging markets.

Opportunities for Leapfrogging and Inclusion

Emerging markets have a unique opportunity to leapfrog legacy constraints. By embracing coreless banking, banks can:

• Accelerate Financial Inclusion: Digital-first, mobile-centric platforms make banking accessible to underserved populations, supporting economic growth and social development.
• Drive Innovation at Scale: Modular, API-driven architectures enable rapid experimentation and the launch of new products tailored to local needs.
• Reduce Costs and Complexity: Cloud-native solutions lower the total cost of ownership and free banks from the burden of maintaining aging infrastructure.
• Build Resilience and Agility: Coreless banking empowers banks to adapt quickly to regulatory changes, market shifts, and evolving customer expectations.

The Road Ahead

The path to coreless banking in emerging markets is not without obstacles, but the rewards are transformative. By partnering with experienced transformation specialists and leveraging proven methodologies, banks can overcome infrastructure and regulatory hurdles, deliver world-class customer experiences, and unlock new growth opportunities.

At Publicis Sapient, we are committed to helping banks in emerging markets realize the full potential of coreless banking—driving financial inclusion, innovation, and sustainable growth for the digital age.