Industry Deep Dive: Digital Experience Transformation in Financial Services

In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, digital experience transformation is not just a competitive advantage—it’s a necessity. Financial services organizations face unique challenges: stringent regulatory requirements, shifting customer expectations, and the constant pressure to innovate while maintaining operational resilience. At Publicis Sapient, we help banks, insurers, and asset managers navigate this complexity, leveraging decades of experience to deliver customer-centric, compliant, and scalable digital solutions that drive measurable business impact.

Financial institutions are under unprecedented pressure to modernize. Customers expect seamless, personalized digital experiences, whether they’re opening an account, managing investments, or seeking advice. Meanwhile, regulatory scrutiny and the need for robust risk management demand operational excellence and transparency. The intersection of these forces creates both challenges and opportunities:

• Regulatory Compliance: Digital platforms must be secure, auditable, and adaptable to evolving regulations across multiple jurisdictions.
• Market Expansion: Rapidly launching new products and entering new markets requires scalable, flexible technology and processes.
• Customer-Centric Innovation: Differentiation comes from delivering intuitive, frictionless experiences that build trust and loyalty.

Our proven SPEED framework—Strategy and Consulting, Product, Experience, Engineering, and Data—enables financial organizations to unlock value at every stage of their transformation journey. We combine deep industry knowledge with agile, data-driven methods to deliver:

• Customer Journey Transformation: Holistically reimagining the end-to-end customer and employee experience, reducing friction, and aligning operations to deliver on brand promises.
• Product Design Services: Creating digital products that address both functional and emotional needs, from foundational transactions to aspirational financial goals.
• Salesforce Experience Design: Integrating experiential and operational requirements to maximize technology investments and accelerate time to value.
• Design Systems: Establishing a central source of truth for digital design, ensuring consistency, scalability, and rapid innovation across channels and brands.

Lloyds Banking Group set out to become a modern, tech-enabled, customer-led organization. By partnering with Publicis Sapient, the bank shifted from a traditional, IT-driven model to one focused on speed, quality, and value. Key initiatives included core banking modernization, cloud foundation, and the implementation of generative AI for continuous learning. The results were transformative:

• Commercial account opening time reduced from 30 days to 48 hours
• Payment fraud reduced by 95% through advanced safeguards
• Personalized experiences delivered via a new Transactions System of Engagement
• Scalable, resilient capabilities that keep the bank agile in a changing market

Nationwide became the first major lender to offer Later Life Lending products to customers over 55, opening new revenue streams and reinforcing its reputation as an innovator. In just 10 months, the new offering generated over 32,000 inquiries and nearly 7,700 mortgage applications in its first 15 months. Nationwide’s digital transformation also included:

• Migration to a secure, resilient cloud platform with zero downtime
• 50% faster migration than expected
• Centralized customer data platform enabling real-time notifications, personalized products, and fraud monitoring
• £4 million in infrastructure cost savings and 24 million weekly app logins

A leading asset management firm faced the challenge of delivering consistent, high-quality digital experiences across 27 countries, each with unique regulatory and business requirements. Publicis Sapient implemented an enterprise-grade content management system, enabling:

• 27 localized websites launched in under a year
• Front-end flexibility for each country to tailor experiences to local regulations
• Integration with sales and marketing architecture for unified operations
• Future investment focused on innovation, not technical debt

Our work with financial services clients consistently delivers:

• Faster time to market for new products and services
• Reduced operational costs and increased efficiency
• Enhanced regulatory compliance and risk management
• Significant improvements in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue growth

For example, a leading European bank transformed 17+ customer journeys, achieving $340 million in efficiency savings and $575 million in revenue uplift, while reducing time from idea to implementation by 67%.

With over 30 years of digital transformation leadership, Publicis Sapient is uniquely positioned to help financial services organizations thrive. Our approach is distinguished by:

• Deep industry expertise and a legacy of innovation
• Integrated, multidisciplinary teams that bridge strategy, design, engineering, and data
• A relentless focus on customer and business value, not just technology
• Proven frameworks for regulatory compliance, scalability, and rapid delivery

Financial services leaders who embrace digital experience transformation are better equipped to navigate regulatory complexity, expand into new markets, and deliver the customer-centric innovation that defines tomorrow’s industry leaders. Partner with Publicis Sapient to reimagine your digital future—one that is agile, compliant, and truly customer-first.

For more information on how we can help your organization achieve its digital transformation goals, visit publicissapient.com.

Relevant Links

• Publicis Sapient's Experience Transformation Solutions: Driving Digital Business Success
• Transformación Digital de la Experiencia: Impulsando el Valor Empresarial en América Latina (LATAM)
• Publicis Sapient's Experience Transformation Solutions: Driving Digital Business Success
• The Power of Design Systems: Accelerating Brand Consistency and Innovation at Scale
• Transformación Digital en América Latina: El Poder de los Sistemas de Diseño para la Escalabilidad y la Consistencia de Marca (LATAM)
• Systèmes de Design Numérique : Accélérer l’Innovation et la Cohérence des Marques en Europe (Europe)
• Sistemas de Diseño Digital: El Motor Silencioso de la Transformación Empresarial en América Latina (LATAM)
• Accélérer la transformation digitale en Europe : L’expérience client au cœur de la réussite (Europe)