Dynamic banking built to deliver results

Universal Banking is a business unit at Finastra that provides a comprehensive suite of solutions that help banks modernize their core banking operations, accelerate digital transformation and meeting evolving customer expectations. It includes modern core banking, digital engagement, analytics and AI and ecosystem extensibility.

Finastra’s Universal Banking unit works with banks that want to modernize legacy systems, accelerate product innovation, reduce cost-to-serve, and improve operational efficiency while delivering customer delight. It also supports the needs of fast-growing challenger banks, digital startups, Fintechs, Islamic Financial Institutions, and Building Societies.

Finastra’s Universal Banking platform – Essence – uniquely combines rich, broad and deep banking functionality with advanced technology. The solution covers a wide range of banking areas including: lending, deposits, payments, multicurrency operations, workflows, product configuration and regulatory needs. Rich functionality is needed because banking is sophisticated. Advanced technology is needed because banking is evolving. The combination is unique.

Finastra Universal Banking provides comprehensive capabilities for deposits, lending, payments, and account management, all integrated into a modern, composable platform. Its modular design allows banks to adopt capabilities progressively while maintaining consistent workflows, data integrity and operational resilience.

Finastra’s Universal Banking solution delivers a consistent, connected experience across online, mobile, branch, call center, and ATM channels. Through unified customer profiles and consistent product configuration, banks can deliver personalized, real-time experiences regardless of how customers choose to engage.

Finastra employs modern RegTech features and automated compliance tools, plus integration with analytics and risk engines, to meet global and regional regulatory requirements. With Essence, banks can deliver modern features while maintaining rigorous posting logic, auditability, and operational consistency.

Yes. Finastra’s Universal Banking solutions are designed to support multiple banking models, including Islamic finance. The platform provides Sharia-compliant capabilities and supports Islamic product rules without custom development.

Yes. Finastra offers flexible deployment options, including on-prem and cloud. In fact, the code base used for on-prem deployments is the same as for cloud deployments, simplifying migration. This helps financial institutions enhance agility, strengthen security, and scale operations efficiently while reducing infrastructure costs.

Yes. Finastra Universal Banking solutions are designed for extensibility through a comprehensive portfolio of open, flexible APIs and standards-based integration patterns. Banks can connect various fintech capabilities without custom core modifications. This enables continuous innovation through a plug-and-play ecosystem.

Yes. It supports complex organizational structures including multi-entity, multicurrency and multi-jurisdiction environments. Banks can run shared services while keeping entity-specific rules, products and reporting separately.

Yes. The modular design, cloud capabilities, and microservices architecture enable horizontal scaling at the component level, allowing services (like payments, lending, or posting) to be scaled independently based on load. This ensures consistent performance even as transactions grow.

By reducing infrastructure management, automating upgrades and testing, and eliminating legacy system overhead, Finastra’s Universal Banking solutions eliminate redundancies and simplify operations. The open, componentized design allows banks to modernize gradually, reducing implementation costs while improving efficiency, compliance, and long-term return on investment. 

Integrated analytics and CRM tools deliver personalized experiences and actionable insights for better customer relationships. Banks can tailor product recommendations, alerts, credit decisions, and financial guidance to individual customer needs. This enhances relevance, improves engagement, and drives stronger digital channel adoption.

Yes. By enabling faster transactions, consistent digital experiences, simplified journeys, fewer errors, and personalized interactions, Essence helps banks improve NPS, reduce complaints, and strengthen retention. 

You can request a demo directly through the Finastra website by filling out our contact form or reaching out to a regional sales representative.