Reimagine banking: Turning industry pain points into strategic growth in 2026
What if the greatest threat to your bank’s future isn’t disruption from outside – but inertia within? In our last Reimagine Banking series, we challenged leaders to envision a new era for financial services. Now, the stakes are even higher: customers can switch providers with a tap, and new competitors emerge overnight.
The real risk is standing still. The banks that thrive will be those that turn pain points into launchpads for growth, resilience, and transformation – delivering what customers want, at a price they value, and a cost that drives profitability.
From pain points to possibilities
The banking industry is at a crossroads. Competitive pressures, rapidly evolving economic realities, legacy architectures, fragmented data, regulatory pressures, and unpredictable costs are more than operational headaches they are signals that the old ways of doing business no longer serve the needs of today’s customers or indeed the ambitions of tomorrow’s banks.
Yet, these pain points are not obstacles to have to be merely endured. They are opportunities to reimagine how we deliver value by putting the customer at the center of every decision.
Delivering for customers – the true North
Transformation begins with understanding what customers truly want:
Simplicity and speed:
Customers expect seamless onboarding, instant account opening, and frictionless digital experiences. Yet, in 2025, only 20% of checking accounts are opened fully online, and abandonment rates reach 67% when processes are slow or complex1. Ask yourself: when was the last time a customer said, “I love waiting for the bank to do its KYC checks before opening my account?” Never.
Personalization:
They want products and services tailored to their needs, not generic offerings. In 2025, 70% of banking customers expect personalized experiences across every channel, but most institutions are not meeting that expectation2. Personalization has a direct impact on growth. Accenture reports that banks delivering relevant and timely recommendations can increase share of wallet by 5–30%3. A practical example is a savings plan that adjusts automatically when a customer’s income changes—this is the level of adaptability customers look for today.
Transparency and trust:
Pricing must be clear, fair, and competitive. Trust is now a critical priority as 65% of financial institutions enforce data sovereignty controls, and 30–35% employ privacy engineers to meet rising compliance demands4. PwC reports that banks investing in trust frameworks see measurable ROI5. In addition, Accenture’s research shows that advocacy rises sharply when transparency is evident, with high-advocacy banks growing 1.7× faster and gaining 5–30% more share of wallet6.
Reliability:
Customers expect their bank to be dependable, secure, and always available. In 2025, 89% of banks increased spending on security and fraud prevention, responding to a 75% rise in cyberattacks the previous year7. Operational resilience and consumer protection are among the top priorities for regulators, according to EY’s Global Financial Services Regulatory Outlook8. When banks fail to meet these expectations, trust erodes quickly and customers switch providers.
Banks that meet these needs at a price customers value and a cost the bank can sustain will succeed. They will achieve growth, profitability, and customer satisfaction in a market where loyalty must be earned.
Pain points as catalysts for change
Let’s look at some of the industry’s most persistent pain points, and how they can be reframed as opportunities:
Competitive pressures:
Rather than viewing the seemingly endless choice offered to customers as a hurdle to be overcome, consider it as both a free source of innovative ideas and an opportunity to offer customers the advice they crave. Put simply if you can help customers separate the signal from the noise, they will be grateful.
Evolving economic realities:
The world is more dynamic today than before. While no-one ever had a crystal ball to predict the past – the phrase “past performance does not guarantee future results” has even more meaning today. The answer to increasing volatility is more agility.
Complex legacy architecture:
Instead of seeing legacy systems as a barrier, view them as a launchpad for modernization. Composable architectures and cloud-native solutions enable agility, reduce costs, and support best-of-breed strategies. They make it easier to deliver new products that customers want.
Fragmented customer data:
Unifying data across systems unlocks actionable insights, enabling banks to personalize offerings and anticipate customer needs before they even ask.
Regulatory pressure and operational friction:
Compliance doesn’t have to slow us down. By automating manual processes and redesigning workflows, banks can deliver faster, more reliable service, especially in complex areas like Islamic Banking or multi-segment operations.
Unpredictable costs:
Moving away from high cost, in-house maintenance and legacy infrastructures toward modern, scalable solutions with transparent and predictable pricing models ensures profitability while keeping prices attractive for customers
The CEO’s role is to orchestrate a holistic transformation
As leaders, our role in addition to lead from the front and set to the tone, is to orchestrate change across every dimension – technology, operations, innovation, and financial models. CEOs must act as chief orchestrators, ensuring every initiative reinforces the bank’s core value proposition. They must embody the change they seek. This means:
Championing a customer-first culture:
Every pain point should be mapped to customers need and business outcomes. For example, if onboarding is slow, the goal shouldn’t be to merely make it faster, it’s about reducing abandonment rates and improving customer satisfaction.
Empowering teams to innovate:
Encourage cross-functional collaboration to solve problems creatively and pragmatically. Replace rigid approval chains with agile governance models that allow rapid experimentation while maintaining risk controls.
Investing in the right capabilities:
Focus on solutions that deliver value for customers and profitability for the bank. Technology is crucial for success, but it is not an end goal – prioritize foundational investments that also deliver value fast. Think composable, cloud-native, advanced architectures.
Measuring what matters:
Track progress not just by internal metrics, but by customer satisfaction, retention, and growth. Cost: income ratios are important but don’t tell the full story. Use advanced analytics to turn raw data into actionable insights to adjust your strategy dynamically backed by solid evidence of what’s working.
We need to concentrate on our core value proposition. Every action should reinforce it. Consider for a moment – while technology is crucial to your value proposition – are you a bank or a technology company?
Pain points aren’t obstacles – they are the blueprint for strategic growth as you reimagine banking in a rapidly changing world. By starting with the customer, pricing for value, and managing costs for profitability, we transform challenges into opportunities and position our banks for lasting success. But where to start? Consider mapping your top three pain points to customer outcomes. Then ask yourself: ‘how can we turn each of them into a growth lever?’. That’s where transformation begins.
Explore more on how to deliver stability and growth in a precarious world.
References
1.Cornerstone Advisors & Alkami. 2025 Digital Banking Performance Metrics. May 2025.
2.Forrester. The State of Digital Experiences in Banking, 2025. Jan 2025.
3.Deloitte Switzerland. Banking CX Maturity Study 2025. May 2025.
4.IDC. FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Trust 2025. Jan 2025.
5.PwC. Trust and Safety Outlook 2025. Jul 2025.
6.Accenture. Global Banking Consumer Study 2025. Mar 2025.
7.KPMG. U.S. CEO Outlook 2025. Oct 2025.
8.EY. Global Financial Services Regulatory Outlook 2025. Jan 2025.
