If Covid-19 has demonstrated one thing, it’s that even the most carefully constructed plans can be upended overnight. Just a few weeks into 2020, financial institutions were forced to set aside their business and technology strategies and pivot towards addressing a number of immediate issues.

With the initial shock of Covid now passed in many markets, the challenges of providing short-term customer support, managing surges in demand for digital channels, and providing the infrastructure for enterprise-wide remote working have been addressed in the majority of cases. What remains are a number of questions over the impact that Covid-19 will have on bank technology priorities for the rest of 2020 and into 2021.

To investigate these issues, Celent has launched its Covid-19 Banking Insight Panel to track the sentiment of the industry. We invited a panel of senior bankers to answer a short survey every month, and plan to publish the results in a series of short reports. With so much uncertainty around the true impact of Covid, ongoing monitoring is the most effective way to chart the course ahead.

The third wave of Celent’s Covid-19 Banking Insight Panel polls ran from August 5th-21st. In total, we received 47 completed responses spread across North America, EMEA, and Asia. This report contains the results from this second wave, which addresses the following themes:

• Expectations on the timeline for a return to 'normal' business conditions;
• The likely shape of the post-Covid landscape;
• Covid as a driver for further investment in new technology;
• The impact of Covid on cloud strategy.