SAP Fioneer: Reinventing Banking from the Core

At SIBOS Frankfurt 2025, FF News sat down with Jaime from SAP Fioneer, whose journey from SAP to its speedboat subsidiary mirrors the transformation sweeping across banking itself. What began as a spin-off in 2021 has evolved into a strategic bridge between two worlds — the enterprise-grade stability of SAP and the agility of fintech innovation.

Jaime describes SAP Fioneer as “the best of both opportunities” — the chance to combine rock-solid, scalable technology trusted by global banks with the nimble pace of digital evolution that today’s financial ecosystem demands. It’s this blend that positions Fioneer uniquely in a market where legacy systems can no longer keep up with AI-driven efficiency, customer expectations, and the push for real-time digital experiences.

According to Jaime, today’s leaders “rolling their sleeves up” is not just cultural but essential. Banking’s perfect storm — new technologies, changing regulations, and customer-first competition — requires collaboration across all levels. The days of relying on four-decade-old systems are ending; transformation must come from within.

He reflects on the mixed success of banks’ own speedboat strategies, from HSBC’s Zing to ABN AMRO’s New10, noting that while greenfield ventures offer simplicity, large institutions often struggle to isolate them from the “mothership.” True progress, he says, sometimes means facing into the legacy rather than fleeing from it.

On the subject of core replacement, Jaime tempers optimism with realism. Though the idea of migrating wholesale from old systems sounds appealing, the legal, regulatory, and technical entanglements of mainframe architecture make it a far tougher challenge in practice.

As for his passion for SAP Fioneer, it comes from belief — belief in uniting SAP’s proven infrastructure with fintech’s spirit of disruption. Standing amid peers and partners at Sibos, Jaime says it’s clear: this collaboration isn’t just another corporate experiment, but a blueprint for how the financial industry can evolve without losing its foundations.