On June 5, 2025, I attended the Infosys Finacle Digital Banking Connect 2025 conference for financial institutions and industry analysts in New York City. Two main areas of the Infosys executive and bank client presentations, as part of the conference’s theme, “Shaping Banking’s Next,” were in my coverage areas:
• Data management to support GenAI, using GenAI to rewrite COBOL and other legacy code • Core banking system modernization
Below is a summary of Infosys’s views on those topics, followed by Celent’s view based on recent survey-based research.
The Main Conference Theme from the Keynote — and Three Products to Support It
The main theme of the conference was that in the face of technology’s impact on banking, banks must continuously evolve and adapt. Infosys discussed three of their key banking technology products that support financial institutions in their digital transformation journeys:
- Their agentic-AI powered UX-UI Development Studio solution, which they say is the financial services industry’s first solution of its kind.
- Finacle core banking, which is a rearchitected, composable cloud-native core banking platform for financial institutions to hollow out their legacy core banking systems.
- The Finacle Data and AI Suite, which includes the Finacle Data Platform, the Finacle AI Platform, generative and agentic AI capabilities, and embedded AI use cases.
Two examples of Finacle’s core banking system modernization include running billing as a service (BaaS) and buy-now, pay later (BNPL). While Infosys has been modernizing these systems for years, a recent innovation was building a “thin” general ledger that sits between the BaaS and BNPL components and the bank’s master general ledger. This approach 1) provides speed and efficiency, and 2) coexists with the master general ledger that is posted back to later on. This structure helps banks deploy microservices quickly and efficiently.
The Finacle Data and AI Suite platform has a low-code system for creating machine learning (ML) analytic modeling. The platform also tests multiple models and determines the best one. The platform also includes a data lakehouse and data marts.
Celent Banking Technology Research Puts AI at the Top Infosys product strategy is consistent with Celent banking. Figure 1 shows the banking industry will continue to prioritize investments in AI and advanced data analytics technologies through midyear 2026. This will support a range of different use cases, including many planned enhancements to the digital channels. This will doubtless include further investment in GenAI across a range of use cases as well.
Figure 1: AI, Analytics, and Digital Identity Are the Top Technology Priorities for 2025
Core Banking Platform Transformation Will AI-Enable Banks Puneet Chhahira, Head of Product Management & Marketing at Infosys Finacle, dove deeply into core banking platform transformation and its role in bank enterprise transformation. The need for change is becoming more urgent as the speed of business accelerates with GenAI/Agentic AI. The inability to move fast enough impedes growth, so the need for transformation has moved from front office technology to middle and back office technology.
Core banking platform modernization will help banks transform with less business disruption. Modern enterprise application architecture will help banks decide which functional parts of the core to pull out of the existing core, and in what sequence. This approach is not just having components and building microservices to run those components. Banks need a deep understanding of composability, combining some components that are legacy with others that are modern. Synchronous interoperability can then occur in real time.
Figure 2 shows the top three drivers of bank IT strategy through the first half of 2026. Almost half of all banks see product or proposition enhancement as one of their three most important priorities for 2025.
Figure 2: Replacing/Modernizing Legacy Systems Is Increasing in Priority
Product/proposition innovation was also high on the agenda last year, but what’s really changed is that one in three views this as their single biggest focus area. The emphasis on product development is a response to concerns over customer retention and the challenge from fintechs, as well as a chance for some banks to unlock the benefits of recent investments in modernization and agility.
Core banking platforms are legacy and end-of-life systems that rank third as an IT strategy and spending driver. However, core modernization also plays a key role in product/proposition innovation and creating greater technology speed and agility. Accordingly, core banking platform transformation remains a top IT strategy driver and spending priority for banks.
Contact me at info@celent.com or cfocardi@celent.com if you would like to discuss these or other topics.
