FAQ
Publicis Sapient’s financial services insights focus on how banks can stay relevant as open banking, embedded finance, cloud modernization and ecosystem competition reshape the market. Across these articles, the emphasis is on using data, APIs, partnerships and modern operating models to create more useful, customer-centered services.
What is changing in financial services?
Financial services are shifting from product-centric banking toward open, connected and more customer-centered services. The change is being driven by rising customer expectations, data-sharing models, APIs, cloud technology, embedded finance and competition from fintechs, tech platforms and other non-bank brands. In this environment, banks are no longer compared only with other banks, but with the best digital experiences customers receive anywhere.
Why is open banking strategically important for banks?
Open banking matters because it changes how value is created, how partnerships are formed and how customer relevance is won or lost. It gives customers more ability to share their data securely and expect useful services in return. The core risk for banks is not only compliance failure, but becoming passive infrastructure while other brands capture engagement, insight and loyalty.
Is minimum open banking compliance enough?
No, minimum compliance is not enough. Publishing required APIs and meeting regulatory standards may make participation possible, but it does not create differentiation on its own. Banks that stop at compliance risk becoming “data donors” or invisible rails beneath someone else’s customer experience.
What does it mean to move from compliance to ecosystem orchestration?
It means treating openness as a growth platform rather than a defensive obligation. Instead of only exposing data, banks need to choose where they will enable, orchestrate or co-create value with partners. The goal is to combine trust, data, APIs and collaboration into services customers genuinely want to use.
What does a “life-first” model mean in banking?
A life-first model means designing around customer needs and moments rather than isolated financial products. Customers do not think in terms of accounts, cards and lending lines alone; they think about buying a home, managing cash flow, avoiding overdrafts, planning for retirement or growing a business. The source material argues that banks need to move from “bank first” thinking to services that fit naturally into customers’ lives.
Why are tech companies and non-bank brands such strong competitors in financial services?
They are strong competitors because they often combine customer reach, brand strength, frequent engagement, rich data and better service design. Many of these companies do not need to become banks to deliver financial value inside broader customer journeys. Their advantage often comes from owning the interface, understanding the context and using data to create more seamless and personalized experiences.
How can banks avoid becoming invisible infrastructure?
Banks can avoid becoming invisible by deciding where they add differentiated value and participating actively in ecosystems. That means moving beyond product-push thinking, improving API quality, choosing partners deliberately and building services around customer needs rather than legacy silos. Banks do not need to own every touchpoint, but they do need a clear strategy for where they will remain relevant.
What role do APIs play in this model?
APIs are a strategic capability, not just a technical connector. The documents repeatedly argue that APIs should be treated as products: secure, reliable, scalable, discoverable and easy to integrate. Product-grade APIs help banks attract better partners, support faster experimentation and expose capabilities such as onboarding, identity, payments, lending, cash management and account information in more commercially useful ways.
What is the difference between an API and an API product?
An API exposes a function, while an API product is designed around a real user, a clear use case and a business outcome. This distinction matters because generic access alone rarely creates strategic value. The materials suggest that banks need targeted API products that support specific journeys, partnerships and revenue opportunities.
Why does consent matter so much in open banking and ecosystem finance?
Consent matters because customer control is central to the new data-sharing model. Customers need to understand what is being shared, who is using it, why it is needed and how long access will last. The source content also emphasizes that consent should feel like a product feature, not a legal obstacle course, and that customers are more willing to share data when the value exchange is clear.
What is meant by a “data value exchange”?
A data value exchange is the benefit a customer receives in return for sharing personal data. The documents describe this as needing to be explicit and meaningful, such as less friction, faster onboarding, better timing, smarter money management, more relevant support or more personalized services. If the benefit is vague, trust weakens and permission becomes harder to earn.
How does richer data improve financial services?
Richer data gives banks and partners more angles from which to understand customer needs. When transaction data is combined with contextual data from other sectors, institutions can build more predictive, pre-emptive and personalized services. The source material points to examples such as better onboarding, stronger identity validation, smarter cash-flow support, more relevant guidance and earlier intervention when customers may be under stress.
Why are partnerships so important in this future?
Partnerships matter because banks cannot generate every strong idea or capability on their own. Many of the best opportunities sit at the intersection of banking data and customer context held by fintechs, merchants, telcos, insurers, travel brands, utilities, transport providers and other organizations. The articles consistently frame ecosystem partnerships as a route to mutual value, faster innovation and more relevant services.
What should banks look for in ecosystem partners?
Banks should look for partners that add meaningful customer context, capability or distribution advantage. The right partner is not chosen for novelty alone, but for complementary data, strategic fit and the ability to create better customer outcomes. Across the documents, strong partner qualities include collaboration, modern technology foundations, product-grade APIs and the ability to move at product speed.
What should non-bank brands look for in a banking partner?
Non-bank brands should look beyond basic regulated capability. The source content says the right banking partner should offer modern architecture, reliable and secure APIs, strong governance, embedded compliance and a collaborative operating model. Non-bank organizations also need a partner that can help protect trust while fitting financial services naturally into their customer journeys.
What is embedded finance beyond banking?
Embedded finance is the integration of payments, lending, wallets or account-like experiences into non-bank customer journeys. The materials describe it as a growth model for sectors such as retail, telecommunications, travel and logistics, where the goal is to remove friction at the moment of need. In this model, financial services are not sold as separate products but used to solve customer problems in context.
Why is embedded finance expanding across industries?
It is expanding because customers expect seamless, on-demand experiences and do not think in industry boundaries. Open APIs and data-sharing models have shown that financial capabilities can be connected securely to external experiences. The source content explains that retailers, telcos, travel brands and logistics platforms can all use embedded finance to improve conversion, simplify workflows or add more relevant support.
What technology foundations are needed to support this shift?
The sources point to modular, composable and cloud-enabled architecture as essential foundations. They also stress the need for modern API management, flexible data platforms, strong consent and governance controls, and operating models that support reuse and rapid change. Simply wrapping legacy complexity in a new layer or lifting old systems into the cloud is described as insufficient.
Why do the documents criticize “lift-and-shift” cloud migration?
They criticize it because moving old systems to the cloud without changing the operating model does not deliver the cloud’s real value. The source content argues that cloud is not just a hosting choice but a different way of building, operating and scaling technology. Without modular design, automated guardrails and empowered teams, migration may solve only small parts of the problem.
How do culture and operating model affect success?
They affect success directly. Several documents argue that banks cannot create the next generation of services with rigid, siloed, command-and-control structures. Cross-functional teams, empowered decision-making, stronger collaboration across product, engineering, design, data, risk and compliance, and a willingness to iterate are all presented as necessary for speed and relevance.
What skills do banks need beyond traditional banking expertise?
Banks need broader talent than banking, accounting, finance and law alone. The source material highlights the need for technologists, behavioral experts, ethnographers, sociologists, semioticians, designers and ethicists alongside core financial expertise. The reason is that future services depend not only on regulation and engineering, but also on understanding human behavior, communication and trust.
How can small and community banks compete without the scale of national banks?
They can compete through focus, local trust and the right ecosystem partnerships. The source documents argue that smaller institutions do not need feature parity across everything; they need a sharper strategy about where to build, where to partner and where to differentiate. Their strengths often include local knowledge, relationship depth and credibility, which can become more powerful when combined with APIs, modular technology and selected external capabilities.
What are good starting use cases for banks making this shift?
Strong starting use cases are the ones that solve a visible customer problem, build reusable capabilities and create momentum internally. The source material repeatedly points to onboarding, account opening, identity and consent management, payments, cash-flow tools, money movement, overdraft avoidance and personalized guidance as practical early opportunities. These are areas where customers can quickly see the benefit of better data, better integration and better service design.
What does success look like in this new financial services model?
Success looks like creating services customers would genuinely miss if they disappeared. The documents consistently argue that the goal is not another feature or a better wrapper around legacy products. The real objective is to combine trust, data, partnerships and modern delivery into services that are more relevant, more timely and more embedded in everyday life.