The Banks That Win Will Do It Quietly
By Ali Paterson · 12 October 2026
In brief: Tonella describes what architectural consistency demands: converging on scalable tech, globalising what can be globalised, and reserving enough resource to own the bank's future rather than being dictated to by economics — with AI adopted deliberately because the mission is trust. Wilson points to a platform built from scratch and the culture that sustains it. Dixon predicts the winners will embed
Consistency of architecture is the long-term guiding force, and Daniele Tonella, CTO and Member of the Management Board at ING, describes what maintaining it actually involves: converging on scalable tech, globalising the services that can be globalised, and holding back enough resource to own the bank's own future rather than being dictated to by its economics. AI included, adopted deliberately rather than sprinkled over everything, because the ultimate mission is trust.
Building clean is the other route. Joe Wilson, Chief Evangelist at bunq, points to a platform built from scratch in an industry carrying a hundred years of history, and to what that buys — the ability to reinvent whenever reinvention is needed, and to stay genuinely close to users. What sustains it is culture, and a standard that the experience has to be right for the user rather than merely acceptable to the company or the regulator.
Cornel Dixon, Head of Growth at Plumery, closes the series with the one prediction he is confident making. The banks that succeed will embed release speed into their culture and make themselves independent of the core, the backend and the constraints those systems impose. Most, he thinks, will do it quietly — until customers notice the app updating rather more often than it used to.