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A consultancy doing such a survey is likely to have some bias involved. Yet it is true, in my experience, that much of the effort has been to work differently (Agile, Data projects, etc) with no coherent Digital agenda for growth. Most CIOs & IT heads have fallen into a year on year trap of reducing IT costs rather than delivering value faster, modernising tech, enabling growth, upskilling teams and self. Focus on means rather than outcomes, no actual Digital strategy or worthwhile change agenda. Not surprising therefore.

Interesting article which can be seen coming indeed when you look at APIs strategies. Everybody is worrying for when a big player like Amazon will be entering the scene with great fanfare. I don't think disruption will happen like this.

With APIs, customers are likely to do banking as part of their lifestyle, which let's face it, is already occupied by internet giants. This will disintermediate and force banks into commodities (low margins / compliance functions / etc). Survival in this space will be on efficiencies and size. So consolidation and clean IT (and if you have worked on bank systems, you'll see the challenge...). Internet giants will do the client relationship and drive a hard bargain. Margins will be on their side.

Most are trying to give a fight into services, user experience, innovation, agile, etc. But the culture will never cut it unless they think radically about their organisation (splitting startup units and creating a Utility).

Internet giants will provide the platform ecosystem, Start-ups will take some of the business, bit by bit on top. It is already happening with FX, investments, loans, Credit cards, Payments, etc. In this mix, banks are a sitting duck to become a Commodity/Utility unless they make some really bold moves very quickly.

Such articles sound like tabloid sensationalism and are very damaging on the nature of technology change and how to implement it. We seem to lash-on on a theme for the year just like fashion. This generates meme-style strategies, whilst previous themes have been half progressed. 

Automation will indeed make operations more efficient and lower some operational costs. But AI is not a magic bullet. Get your data right and it can STP already. You won't be building good AI on top of poor data. So this challenge has been around for a long time. Those have have not managed to systematically manage / improve their data are starting from far back.

There are many in such state because so far it was far easier to meet set targets by shifting the manual handling of exceptions to cheaper shores rather than industrialise their structural resolution. 

Eventually all this is a zero sum game. There are no "revenue boosts". This will shift market share between players by nature of competition. Very quickly it will become the new standard. So this is not about growth, it is about market share and survival. 

Technology has always been central into banks, but with more pressures on margins, it needs to be more efficient. This is not achieved by major investments. This is achieved by absorbing change as an on-going flow. If change is hard, make it continuous. Such sensational headlines are not supportive of a more intelligent approach to change. The real trick is absorbing the potential of technology towards business outcomes as an on-going activity. 

Such an approach will also enable further human potential above AI rather than see it as a simple cost cutting exercise. 

Interesting how the role of Architect is missing from the future... How are we intending for all this to hang together and continue to evolve whilst remaining secure. Most architectures are struggling to move from "cave-man" level. Here we are talking skyscraper or entire town planning in comparison. The issue with many banks is that by the time headways are made at some scale, the technology has already moved forward 2 cycles already. Finding a way of continuously evolving rather than refreshing applications periodically is still the biggest issue. The roots of which can be found in cost accounting as this appear like more Opex than Capex. 

That was expected and it is not surprising that Amazon makes the first move. Also expected that they are looking to catch the engagement layer and relinquish banks to Utilities (commodity/low margins) in the process. Most banks are sitting ducks to change the tide of this movement.

Your list are essentially technology considerations. What to watch for is how Open Banking may stimulate innovation of Banking from a customer standpoint and how far traditional banks will keep the pace of servicing their customers without becoming disintermediated to pale utilities. I believe that much could be done through aggregation to balance one’s credit across multiple banks and avoid overdraft fees (a main source of funding for banks). Multiplay with insurances as well and more customised / aggregate coverage in Insurance. Banking on the periphery too. Loan when you need at point of purchase and making choices to put you money at work with peer lending. Those are trends that will be meaningful to customers and could relegate traditional banks to mere Utilities.

You may also want to ensure that you could get the transaction VAT receipt, not just the payment receipt. That would be timesaver for tracking expenses.

Strange that the article does not mention about the disintermediation of the customers from their bank with PSD2. This will challenge the dynamics of the market and though the banks are likely to remain, they may be pushed as Utilities, and chances are that the margins to will be higher at the touch points than at the Utility level. So fintechs will be in with a big chance and platforms / portals are bound to step in there, but they won't need to do the full end to end service to rival.

in the age of collaborative working, I am not sure what to measure from desk presence!

Passporting rights are a genuine concern but both UK and EU would be foolish to disagree on this. Talents maybe a concern but talents are already a constraint anyhow. Availability of Banks as partner/clients and VC for funds is a much bigger constraint for any startups. The whole ecosystem (and the favourable tax system) will have resilience in London for some time.