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News and resources on retail banking, consumer finance and reinventing customer experience in finance.

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Jeremy Takle

Jeremy Takle Founder and CEO at Pennyworth

AI-native finance: Will your bank be left behind?

22

Alex Kreger

Alex Kreger Founder and CEO at UXDA Financial UX Design

Halloween Story: Will Incumbent Banks Become Haunted Houses?

1

Cliff Bunting

Cliff Bunting Director at PurplePatch Broking Ltd

Why Basel III is bringing new scrutiny to credit bureau spend

[New Impact Study] AI’s Promise-Delivery Gap: Bridging the Chasm with Process OrchestrationFinextra Promoted[New Impact Study] AI’s Promise-Delivery Gap: Bridging the Chasm with Process Orchestration

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Expert opinions

Jeremy Takle

Jeremy Takle Founder and CEO at Pennyworth

AI-native finance: Will your bank be left behind?

Banks have spent decades digitising their services, but the next revolution isn’t about convenience or access, it’s about intelligence. AI-native finance is reshaping the very architecture of banking, forcing institutions to rethink how they use data, how they deliver value, and how they engage customers. The next winners won’t just adopt AI. They...

/ai /retail Artificial Intelligence and Financial Services

Alex Kreger

Alex Kreger Founder and CEO at UXDA Financial UX Design

Halloween Story: Will Incumbent Banks Become Haunted Houses?

Ten years ago, entering any bank branch was like entering a living ecosystem. The air was filled with the sounds of stamping papers, banknote counters, and the noisy rhythm of bank tellers interaction. Lines of people, tellers behind glass, and the smell of printed documents and new unpacked banknotes—it all carried a sense of importance, stabili

/retail /markets Innovation in Financial Services

Nikunj Gundaniya

Nikunj Gundaniya Product manager at Digipay.guru

How Banks Can Benefit from Offering Both Digital Wallets and Prepaid Cards

The way customers pay has changed forever since the digitalization of payments. In fact, in 2024 alone, digital wallets accounted for half of global e-commerce transactions, and prepaid cards recorded a 12% growth in usage worldwide. These numbers prove one thing: you can’t ignore either of them. Think about your customers for a moment. Some pre...

/retail /inclusion

Cliff Bunting

Cliff Bunting Director at PurplePatch Broking Ltd

Why Basel III is bringing new scrutiny to credit bureau spend

The full implementation of Basel III in July 2025 is now placing increased pressure on banks’ balance sheets. Capital and liquidity requirements are higher across the board, which means every discretionary cost is under review. And rightly so. While lending portfolios and risk models have been overhauled to meet the new standards, one critical are...

/regulation /retail Banking

Sara Costantini

Sara Costantini Regional Director for the UK and Ireland at CRIF

Banks are powering ahead with AI, but are Brits ready?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming all aspects of our lives. Across industries, businesses are increasingly adopting AI technology to enhance their services, from streamlining internal processes to improving customer-facing services, and the banking and financial services sector is no exception. While a lot of what customers see ...

/ai /retail

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Trending

Jeremy Takle

Jeremy Takle Founder and CEO at Pennyworth

AI-native finance: Will your bank be left behind?

Alex Kreger

Alex Kreger Founder and CEO at UXDA Financial UX Design

Halloween Story: Will Incumbent Banks Become Haunted Houses?

Cliff Bunting

Cliff Bunting Director at PurplePatch Broking Ltd

Why Basel III is bringing new scrutiny to credit bureau spend

Sara Costantini

Sara Costantini Regional Director for the UK and Ireland at CRIF

Banks are powering ahead with AI, but are Brits ready?

/retail

Research

Impact Study

Case Management: The key to revolutionising cross-border payments

While the challenges of case management and inefficient E&I processes are not new, the need to address them is more pressing than ever – especially given the G20’s roadmap deadline and the impending global migration to ISO 20022.  In today’s digital era, end-users expect payments to be faster, cheaper and more convenient than ever before – whether domestic or cross-border. As global payment barriers are overcome, banks are tasked not only with meeting customer demands, but business and regulatory ones too.  Enhanced cross-border payments – as supported by the G20’s roadmap and the richer data that ISO 20022 provides – are becoming a real differentiator, with the capability to unlock tremendous value for institutions. However, while a lot of attention is paid to seamless transactions, one area has historically been overlooked: exceptions and investigations (E&I).  This continues to present a significant challenge for both payment providers and corporates, and is impacting numerous networks and technologies. Yet, if harnessed effectively, E&I tools can help institutions significantly reduce costs, speed up processing times, improve transparency and, by extension, satisfy the G20’s targets.  This Finextra impact study, in partnership with Swift, explores:  The advantages of effective E&I processes;  Why solutions are needed to reach the next level; and  How banks can effectively embed them in their infrastructures. 

316 downloads

Impact Study

Reimagining customer journeys: How can banks upscale experience and boost retention?

To stay competitive and better serve their customer base, financial institutions (FIs) must urgently reimagine their customer journeys — from onboarding to the broader lifetime experience — or risk facing a hit to their market share. Technology has significantly transformed the financial services industry, particularly over the last five years. Challenger banks and fintech firms have rapidly gained popularity thanks to their ability to offer fast, simple, digital services. According to data from Plaid, nearly nine out of 10 consumers were using a fintech application in 2023. This percentage will continue to grow.  Financial institutions (FIs) must urgently reimagine their customer journeys or risk facing a hit to their market share. Indeed, today’s customers are more likely than ever to switch primary banking relationships if they do not receive the services they are looking for. Young, digital natives continue to shape this market, with research revealing that 44% of Gen Z customers have changed their primary banking relationship in the last 12 months. The call to competition cannot be ignored.  But how can FIs innovate to meet these demands, while simultaneously running legacy systems? This Finextra impact study, in association with Hyland, explores how financial institutions can:  Reinvent onboarding and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes;  Upscale the overall customer journey;  Look to artificial intelligence (AI) for product enhancement and integration; and  Present real-world case studies for each of these objectives. 

347 downloads

Impact Study

NextGen retail banking: A roadmap to successful modernisation

Learn why retail banks must transition to modern, composable, future-ready infrastructures today – and how they can devise journeys that are tailored as well as cost-effective. A significant portion of the retail banking landscape still relies on legacy systems, some of which can be costly and hamper innovation. According to a report from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 58% of the UK’s financial services firms use legacy infrastructure for some operations, while 33% depend on it for most of their activities. In North America, the picture is similar, with around 40% of US banks still using the Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) – a coding language dating back to 1959. Some surveys indicate that up to 70% of bank IT budgets are spent on maintaining these legacy systems.   Today, with rapidly evolving consumer demands, technological advancements, stiff competition, and regulatory upheaval, outdated infrastructures are no longer tenable – and risk negatively impacting banks’ efficiency, agility, and customer experiences. So, how can retail banks modernise, while controlling costs and ensuring minimal impact on day-to-day business applications?   This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Oracle, analyses:  The key challenges of legacy banking systems  How to draw up a tailored roadmap for modernisation  How to quantify progress and measure success 

384 downloads

/retail

FinextraTV

From Ageing Systems to Automation: How CTOs Are Approaching Modernisation

Speaking to FinextraTV at SBS Summit 2025 in Paris, Andrew Steadman, Chief Product Officer, SBS discussed some of the key challenges facing financial institutions and the careful nuances of successful deployment of new technologies. Steadman professed that such conversations can’t be had without referencing ageing systems and legacies, and how these have caused fundamental blockers. According to Steadman, organisations are primarily concerned with how to adapt these systems and how to embed AI and automation into their processes in a safe and structured manner, without too much disruption. Crucially, whether building data quality or enlisting AI agents, he believes there is a need for a better unification of these technologies and processes, explaining how some organisations have built too many agents or tools and now struggle to define which provide real business value.

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Long reads

Hamish Monk

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

How can banks improve their onboarding processes?

In a report published by UK Finance in January 2025, the trade association stated that in an “increasingly competitive and congested financial services industry, with legacy banks and fintechs going head to head, improving the customer onboarding experience is key for those serious about growth.” Onboarding is the process by which financial insti...

Stephanie Storry

Stephanie Storry Consultant at PSE Consulting

How will UK BNPL regulation impact merchants?

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has quickly become a retail staple in the UK. With consumers increasingly seeking flexible payment options, BNPL services have surged in popularity, promising an easy way to split payments into bite-sized chunks. But with this growth comes a growing wave of regulatory attention around rising default levels and consumer pr...

Sehrish Alikhan

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

Solving modern KYC challenges

In today’s digital age, banking is expected to be seamless, frictionless, and to make it plain and simple: easy. However, with a constantly shifting regulatory landscape, increased demand for hyper-personalisation and desire to be digital – financial institutions have obstacles to overcome to keep up with consumer demand. A pain point in the digit...