Technology Record - Issue 22: Autumn 2021

123 “Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to digital payments at a pace banks could not have predicted” S U L ABH AGARWA L , ACC ENTUR E an overwhelming focus on insights and the value created by these insights. Banks have realised this and understand that, if they want to com- pete, they need to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand and give clients value from data – through cash flow forecasting and assessing counterparty risks, for example.” Ultimately this means breaking down silos. “Data should not be thought about within the silo of a payments business,” Hazou says. “It’s not about taking data and trying to sell the data for a fee – as banks have done for a long time with reconciliation services. It’s about the bank thinking more broadly about the data and how it can be used intelligently to better service needs.” Yet traditional banks appear to be stuck in the past. Reuters predicts that around £3 trillion still passes through legacy COBOL systems every day. “Too many big banks are running legacy systems,” says Hazou. “They’re still mostly on-premises too. They need to modernise to be suitable for today’s and tomorrow’s markets.” Banks do recognise this, however. Financial service industry leaders know they need to move to new architecture, but traditional water- fall projects have proven too expensive, take too long and don’t necessarily give the desired flexi- bility that banks need. “New architecture will be key to success,” says Hazou. “That means disag- gregating monolithic systems and capabilities and leveraging microservice architecture.” This is where Microsoft and its vast partner community are perfectly situated to help. “Microsoft is chosen by many global software providers thanks to its rich and robust cloud offering which is one of the most secure on the market,” says Hazou. “This is perfectly comple- mented by our data estate which allows banks to create value from the insights that run through their payment systems.” ACI Worldwide is one such partner. “More of our customers are turning to the cloud to F I NANC I A L S E R V I C E S