Cloud adoption in banking accelerates as banks ramp up digital services, reports Economist Intelligence Unit

In a new survey of IT executives in the banking sector, conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and supported by Temenos (SIX: TEMN), more than seven in ten (72%) report that incorporating the cloud into their organization’s products and services will help them to achieve their business priorities. Just under half (47%) say that it will do so “to a great extent”.

Cost is the biggest driver of its usage (43%), followed by the adoption of AI (34%) and improving customer experience (21%). Business agility, elasticity and scalability are together cited by 40% of respondents as top drivers.

The report finds banks have generally been slower to take to cloud computing than other sectors. But the adoption of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud infrastructure has accelerated since the start of the pandemic, as banks seize an opportunity to cut costs and ramp up their digital transformation projects, with 82% of banking IT executives saying they now have a clear strategy for adoption. This comes as established banks figure out how to use incumbency to fend off fintechs and challenger banks, while the newer entrants use the cloud to advance quickly into new market opportunities.

According to the report, banks are tapping into the cloud to speed up their ability to gain insights from data, and in turn to be able to innovate faster. Yet barriers stand in the way of a wholehearted embrace of the cloud—including security, privacy, compliance and governance concerns. These challenges are leading firms to invest in both technology and talent.

Andrew Reeves, Head of Cloud, Temenos, said: “The pandemic has clearly lit a fuse under cloud adoption with banks having to deliver and scale digital services rapidly. However, cloud is also a prerequisite for success in the world of open banking and Banking as a Service. These are megatrends, powered and enabled by the cloud, that are shaping the future of banking.”

You can read the report here.