Commercial banking is at a pivotal inflection point. As digital-first challengers and evolving customer expectations reshape the landscape, commercial banks face mounting pressure to move beyond legacy, product-centric models. The traditional approach—where banks organize around siloed products and legacy systems—no longer meets the needs of today’s business clients, who demand seamless, hyper-relevant, and personalized experiences across every channel.
Recent industry studies reveal that while many commercial banks are confident in their customer experience capabilities, it is the digital challengers and neobanks who are setting new standards. Incumbents risk falling behind as business decision-makers become more digitally savvy and expect the same agility and personalization they experience in consumer banking. The stakes are high: those who fail to adapt risk losing relevance, while those who embrace transformation can unlock new value for both customers and the bank itself.
The biggest obstacles to transformation are deeply entrenched legacy systems and product-centric operating models. Over decades, commercial banks have expanded their product offerings, resulting in disconnected infrastructures—fragmented channels, product systems, and data silos. This fragmentation leads to:
To break free from these constraints, commercial banks must fundamentally reorient their operating models—placing the customer, not the product, at the center. This shift is only possible through bold core modernization, underpinned by modern, coreless architectures and advanced data strategies.
Modern, coreless architectures break down product and channel silos, enabling banks to add or replace components flexibly over time. Cloud-native platforms decouple data and business logic from monolithic systems, making it easier to integrate new capabilities, partner with fintechs, and scale securely. This architectural shift is foundational—without it, true customer centricity and agility remain out of reach.
A coreless architecture unlocks data from legacy systems, making it accessible across the enterprise. Layering advanced analytics and AI on top of high-quality data fuels actionable insights, powers personalization, and enables proactive engagement. Relationship managers and digital channels can leverage these insights to deliver hyper-relevant advice and solutions.
Modern digital channels, built on modular platforms and unified APIs, enable seamless, personalized customer journeys. Digital assistants can handle routine inquiries, while complex needs are seamlessly escalated to human experts. This approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also drives operational efficiency.
Equipping relationship managers with digital workbenches—integrated with data, analytics, and workflow tools—frees them from administrative burdens and enables them to focus on strategic, value-added interactions. AI-powered suggestions and insights help scale specialist knowledge across the organization.
Customer centricity requires more than technology—it demands new ways of working. Agile delivery models, outcome-based funding, and a culture of experimentation enable banks to respond quickly to changing customer needs and market dynamics.
Commercial banks that make the leap to customer centricity—enabled by core modernization—stand to gain on multiple fronts:
With digital challengers raising the bar and customer expectations accelerating, the window for incremental change is closing. Now is the time for commercial banks to make bold moves—modernizing their core, reimagining their operating models, and putting the customer at the heart of everything they do.
Publicis Sapient brings deep expertise in core modernization, customer experience, and digital transformation. Our proven methodologies, technology accelerators, and industry partnerships help commercial banks de-risk migration, accelerate value realization, and build the digital core needed for future growth. Let’s work together to unlock the next era of customer-centric commercial banking.
Ready to transform your commercial bank? Connect with Publicis Sapient to start your journey toward customer centricity and digital leadership.