(21 November 2025 – Global) What key commercial banking developments are East & Partners global analyst team examining in the latest Global Analyst Meeting Insights summary?
Banks Forced to Face Down Existential Threats
Having successfully navigated recent challenges to their business model following the pandemic and march to digital channels, three key risks remain firmly front of mind for global Banks and Fintechs including digital assets/stablecoins, artificial intelligence and legacy system limitations.
“No Going Back” on Stablecoins
The inexorable march towards widespread adoption and usage of stablecoins and on-chain digital assets continues to gather pace. Seemingly limited only by disparate regulatory settings and differing jurisdictional interpretations, Banks and Fintechs are actively responding to growing demand among their corporate B2B and retail B2C client base.
For example the Bank of England (BoE) has been criticised for taking a more cautious approach to stablecoin regulation than other jurisdictions. The BoE has watered down its planned rules for UK stablecoins in response to industry criticism by allowing some assets backing the digital tokens to be invested in short-term government debt and exempting certain businesses from ownership limits.
CFOs and treasurers are looking to their provider for guidance and support, evidenced by the US and UK refusing to implement rules requiring global banks to hold very high capital values to offset potential losses on crypto assets that have now gone back to the drawing board.
The global stablecoin market is expanding rapidly, now worth US$300 billion underpinned by the backing of US President Trump passing the GENIUS act. The rapid growth of stablecoins, designed as a safer form of crypto assets, have prompted calls from US banks and officials for the global regulatory body to review its crypto framework.
What impact will stablecoins have on bank deposits and do banks risk being left behind as payments volumes shift on-chain?
Charting the Best Path for AI
How are leading banks leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to modernise legacy systems, redefine customer experiences, and gain a competitive edge?
For the banking and financial services (BFS) industry, AI has moved rapidly from hype to reality. It is no longer a question on if they should adopt AI, but how fast and deeply they must embed upgraded capabilities across operations to meet modern customer expectations. While ambition is high, execution remains uneven. Complex legacy systems, unclear ROI frameworks, regulatory pressure, and cybersecurity risks continue to slow progress.
Tech Mahindra’s new white paper Building the AI-Driven Bank of Tomorrow, based on proprietary global research by East & Partners, brings together the combined voices of 150 senior banking executives across the Asia Pacific (APAC), the Americas, Europe, and the Nordics, and unveils the vision of an AI-driven bank of tomorrow.
Agentic and generative AI (GenAI) have moved beyond the experimental phase to become transformative tools reshaping CX, risk management, compliance and product innovation. The research shows over 1 in 3 financial institutions (FIs) are already investing aggressively in GenAI to capture the early-mover advantage. (37%). European banks (49%) are outpacing peers in AI investment by a considerable margin, ahead of Americas (39%), the Nordics (32%) and APAC (26%). However, 1 in 4 banks still struggle to adopt new AI solutions, risking being left behind (25%).
Legacy Systems Holding Back Major Banks
Legacy systems remain a critical challenge for CIOs and CTOs, representing a core IT investment focus for 36% of banks globally, alongside operational stability (48%) and regulatory compliance (51%).
Over 9 in 10 banks currently run full-scale modernization programs to retire legacy systems across front-end applications and back-end applications running on the mainframe. Yet most admit to timeline overruns and cost escalations.
Successful players adopt a dual-track approach: maintaining operational stability while incrementally replacing core functions with cloud-native, composable platforms. While front-end systems have evolved to software-as-a-service (SaaS) and agile models, back-end systems largely remain slow, inflexible, and unable to support real-time personalization. This directly impacts revenue, customer satisfaction, and competitive positioning.
CIOs estimate an average of four years to fully retire legacy platforms, and will need to rely on strong systems integration partnerships and clear ROI alignment.
GenAI is now duly accelerating this transformation journey by converting legacy code, simulating architectures, and identifying modernization pathways.
October Analyst Meeting Insights
The October 2025 analyst meeting insights presented the latest developments in private credit, AI progress and asset finance market consolidation.
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