International vendors have been eyeing the US market for years, investing significantly in the hope of establishing a beachhead in the competitive and very large US market for core banking systems.

With more financial institutions than any other country, the US is attractive enough to warrant investment by international vendors. There are significant barriers to entry, but work being done by some large global players is starting to pay dividends.

In the report When the Levee Breaks: International Core Vendors Entering the US, Celent begins by tracking the trends within core banking in North America and then examines each of the international vendors making progress within the market.

Celent estimates the North American (US and Canada) core banking market to generate revenue of $2.9 billion in 2013. It should grow at 3.7% annually, reaching $3.3 billion in 2017. The market is large, lucrative, and growing, but many of the opportunities will likely come from selling ancillary products rather than the core.

“Consolidation among domestic vendors has reduced development resources for some legacy core banking platforms, creating a market opportunity for international vendors. The banking market in the US is steadily approaching a watershed period for core transformation,” says James O’Neill, a senior analyst with Celent’s Banking practice and coauthor of the report.

“Over the years, many core platforms have grown to include a number of ancillary solutions, but some of the architectures are still unflinchingly rigid and inordinately complex,” says Stephen Greer, an analyst with Celent’s Banking practice and coauthor of the report. “The challenges of the digital banking era are making large banks think again about modernization.”