The biggest technology partner is not automatically the right partner for the next banking problem. Large-scale transformation programmes need scale. That is obvious. But many banks and fintechs are not starting with a multi-country programme. They are trying to resolve one constrained problem: • connect a new core to the surrounding payment estate • make an onboarding journey operational • establish a governed AI workflow • modernise a critical legacy component • decide whether a platform is viable before committing further In those situations, the useful question is not “who has the largest delivery footprint?” It is: Who will bring senior financial technology judgement into the room early enough to shape the scope? Who will take clear responsibility for a defined workstream? Who understands the regulatory, data, integration, and operational consequences of the decision, not just the technology selected? Scale matters when scale is the constraint. Often, the constraint is clarity. If you are defining a financial technology transformation and need a partner who can help make the problem concrete, email william.morris@vacuumlabs.com or send me a LinkedIn DM. Please like, share, and follow for more practical perspectives on financial technology transformation. #BankingTechnology #CoreBanking #FintechLeadership #TechnologyStrategy #DigitalTransformation

Reach out to me to learn how IDC Financial Insights works with financial institutions to help them achieve success through accelerated banking, the creation of value through open, agile, and secure infrastructures, creating dynamic customer experiences, and deliver to banking and payments customers worldwide. Our global team of analysts, with decades of industry experience, advise financial institutions on how to supplant the functionality of legacy systems with digital technologies that will improve efficiency and profitability, engage the customer in a meaningful way while reducing risk and fraud.

As we step into Q4 2026, corporate banking has officially entered the era of Treasury Orchestration. ⚡ Technology is no longer just an operational enabler—it is becoming the baseline for corporate competitiveness. For transaction banks, client expectations have shifted: 💪Real-Time as the Baseline Operating System: Moving past static end-of-day balances toward continuous, real-time liquidity visibility across multi-bank entities. 💪Agentic AI with Explicit Guardrails: Moving from passive cash flow dashboards to AI agents that actively flag anomalies and suggest funding rebalancing within strict corporate limits. 💪Structured Data as Value: Converting ISO 20022 message metadata into actionable forecasting and automated reconciliation inside enterprise software. In 2026, market share isn't won by having the largest standalone portal—it's won by being the cleanest, most intelligent orchestration layer inside the client's daily workflow. How is your organization shifting from static cash management to active liquidity orchestration? #CorporateBanking #TreasuryManagement #AgenticAI #LiquidityOrchestration #WorkingCapital #CorporateFinance

“You will be surprised how little has changed when you come back,” a colleague said to me a little less than a year ago before I went on maternity leave. Although my colleague was probably speaking from experience, that statement couldn’t have been further from the truth. Today, we're piloting something that wasn't even on our roadmap when I went on leave: becoming the first bank in the Nordics to offer Model Context Protocol (MCP) capabilities on top of our Premium APIs, enabling customers to connect AI agents directly to their banking data under their own credentials and control. This initiative was announced this week as part of Danske Bank's MCP pilot launch. We don't pretend to know exactly what the endgame looks like. The pace of change in AI is far too fast for that. What we do know is that our customers increasingly expect financial services to be available where they work, in the tools they choose, and in ways that fit naturally into their workflows. Taking steps in that direction feels important and is highly motivating. It is still early days for broad adoption of Agentic AI within finance departments. Many organisations are experimenting and learning. Yet if recent technology shifts have taught us anything, it is that adoption can move from niche to mainstream surprisingly fast once tangible value starts to emerge. I am particularly excited that we can support our corporate and institutional customers in this phase and learn alongside them as their needs evolve. My suspicion is that many of the most valuable use cases have not yet been imagined. A huge thank you to everyone across Customer & Sector Integration, Integration & Adoption, and our wider ecosystem who helped make this possible. This is only one step on a much longer journey. I look forward to seeing what our customers do next. William Pritchard, Christian Hasse, Peter Halsted, Dipu Jose, Lasse Pagh Frandsen, Christie H. Kristensen, Laurynas Diržys, Kenneth Mejnert, Thorbjørn Tavs Søndergaard, Mads Bahnsen, Mette Bruun Severinsen #AI #AgenticAI #MCP #OpenBanking #premiumAPIs #Innovation #FinancialServices

The Wiz Suite has gotten some upgrades! As financial institutions need a more connected way to manage rapidly evolving compliance demands, we have bolstered Wiz with new analytics, workflow management tools and bundled solutions designed to bring compliance data and processes together. At the center of these enhancements is Performance Analytics Wiz, which helps banks and credit unions turn compliance data into clearer performance insights. Together with expanded Community Development Wiz capabilities, the Wiz Suite can help institutions reduce operational silos, streamline workflows and maintain stronger regulatory readiness. Learn how the expanded Wiz Suite is helping financial institutions build a more connected foundation for compliance from today’s press release: https://ow.ly/RqZF50ZM6Uj #RegulatoryCompliance #Banking #FinancialServices #ComplianceTechnology Simon Moir

Technical teams at community FIs know they have the right data to inform decisions. So why is it such a struggle to access that data and use it to answer questions from other teams, act on opportunities or influence strategy? 😫 When core, lending, CRM, and other point solutions keep information fragmented, IT teams spend more time searching across systems and building custom reports instead of acting on what they know.  If this sounds familiar, join our next webinar in Kinective's Intelligent Banking series:  📍 Webinar: Turn Data into Actionable Intelligence  📅 Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. ET  Register: https://hubs.li/Q04x9J_00  #IntelligentBanking #DataIntelligence 

Honoured to join the LSEG Insight Series panel on deploying AI at scale in financial services, covering data governance, agentic workflows, regulatory confidence and production-ready outcomes. It was a pleasure to share the stage with Anupam Kishore, APAC Sales Lead, Analytics and AI at LSEG as our fantastic moderator, alongside Gary Lui , Managing Director, Global Head of Analytics, Global Financial Markets at DBS, and Namrata Jolly, Managing Director, Head of Asia Financial Services at Microsoft. My reflection from driving enterprise AI scale and value: the winners will no longer be defined by how many AI pilots they have in production, but by how effectively they embed AI into core banking workflows. The real test is whether we can turn AI into trusted, reusable and measurable capabilities that change how work gets done and solve real business problems. In corporate and institutional banking, AI is moving from assistance to advice and action. With agentic AI, the opportunity is to connect data, surface client insights, coordinate workflows and enable more timely action. This can shift how bankers allocate their time and attention: less time assembling information, more time applying judgement, building trust, and having strategic client conversations. For AI to scale responsibly, the foundations matter: strong data governance, provenance, transparency, human accountability, reusable platforms and controls designed into the workflow from day one. Thank you to LSEG for hosting, and to my fellow panellists for the thoughtful discussion across banking, analytics, technology and AI adoption.

What does a trusted digital identity layer actually look like? As more financial services and data ecosystems become connected, digital identity is becoming an increasingly important part of how people access services and share data. But there are still big questions around interoperability, different identity models and the role of government frameworks. At Open Banking Expo UK & Europe 2026, these questions will take centre stage in a Powerhouse Debate moderated by Dan Feaheny, principal at Feeney Fintech. On the panel: 🔸 Ekaterina Borisova, technical specialist – Smart Data accelerator, Financial Conduct Authority 🔸 Samantha Ewing, customer journey manager, NatWest 🔸 Phillip Mind, director, digital technology and innovation, UK Finance 🔸 Jason Sheehy, head of identity, Post Office Ltd 🔸 Joe Wilson, chief evangelist, bunq Together, they’ll examine how digital identity is developing in practice, what’s needed to build greater trust across connected ecosystems, and how identity schemes could support the continued evolution of Open Finance and Smart Data. 📅 13–14 October 2026 📍 Business Design Centre, London The Standard Rate ends in 48 hours. Register today before prices rise: https://lnkd.in/dsMKcmSR

BNY Mellon automated 60% of its repetitive operational tasks across a 48,000-person organization. Most people are reading this as a technology story. I think they are reading it wrong. The headline is the headcount: down from roughly 53,000 to 48,000 as automation expanded. The internal AI platform, Eliza, now spans virtually all staff. Those numbers are real and they are significant. But here is what I keep coming back to. BNY Mellon did not just deploy AI tools and wait for results. They redesigned workflows. They redefined roles. They built governance structures that span the enterprise. They made hard leadership decisions about what humans do and what machines do. The technology was probably not the hardest part. Most institutions benchmarking against BNY Mellon are asking the wrong question. They are asking how many tasks can we automate and how fast. The better question is: do we have a serious operating model workstream attached to our AI strategy, or are we layering new tools on top of old structures and expecting different results? Governance, change management, role redesign, and clear executive accountability for AI transformation: those are organizational capabilities. They are not IT deliverables. The institutions that understand that distinction are the ones that will have results worth reporting. This week's BIS brief covers the BNY Mellon numbers in detail, along with the EU AI Act compliance implications and what the core banking modernization wave looks like right now. Subscribe at https://lnkd.in/gPr66Hsh #BankingIntelligence #AITransformation #OperatingModel #BankingLeadership #CoreSystemPartners Continue With Core System Partners - Contact Us: https://lnkd.in/gqYdcSpq - The Strategic Flywheel (book): https://lnkd.in/gynmvkuX - Core Insider (weekly newsletter): https://lnkd.in/gMKa9BYP - Banking Intelligence Service: https://lnkd.in/ge2Jwbi5

In this episode of WRAP UP, I sit down with Chris Walters, CEO of Finastra, to discuss where AI is creating real value for banks and where the industry needs to slow down. Chris explains why high-stakes payment decisions still need human oversight, how Finastra’s Global PAYplus platform directs around $7 trillion in payments each day, and why deterministic banking systems will remain essential even as AI becomes more capable. We also discuss ‪Finastra ‬ decision to narrow its focus to lending and payments, AI-powered payment investigations and repairs, the future of stablecoins in corporate payments, open-weight versus frontier AI models, and why banks should prepare now for tighter AI regulation. Chris makes the case that the future is not AI replacing banking software. It is AI working alongside modern systems, better processes, and human controls. https://lnkd.in/eMSBvXnw