Banks now exist in a platform driven economy, and that means speed is a necessity. As outlined in our Banking Unbound blog, the future belongs to banks that can move quickly to meet evolving customer expectations, respond to market changes, and launch new propositions faster than ever before. This is the essence of Accelerate — the first of three themes defining how banks can thrive in a dynamic digital economy.
But what does acceleration really look like for banks? It’s not just about digitizing faster — it’s about fundamentally transforming how products, services, and innovation are brought to market. Here’s how forward-thinking banks can operationalize “Accelerate” and realize tangible outcomes.
1. Decouple Product from Technology
Legacy banking systems often tie product innovation directly to core infrastructure, resulting in long development cycles and high IT dependencies. To accelerate, banks must decouple product lifecycle management from their core systems. This creates agility — enabling product teams to configure, test, and launch offerings independently, without long IT lead times or core system rewrites.
Actionable Step: Adopt a product catalog or pricing platform that sits outside the core but integrates seamlessly. This allows for faster go-to-market and reduces reliance on long development cycles.
2. Empower Business-Led Innovation
Acceleration thrives when business units have the tools and autonomy to move quickly. Shifting from IT-led change to business-led product design empowers teams to prototype, test, and iterate directly — with less friction and fewer bottlenecks.
Actionable Step: Invest in low-code/no-code platforms and empower product and pricing teams with tools to create, modify, and manage offerings without coding.
3. Establish Modular Architecture
Speed demands flexibility. By embracing modular, component-based architecture, banks can plug in new capabilities — such as fintech partnerships, AI models, or customer experience layers — without reworking foundational systems.
Actionable Step: Move toward a composable banking model by investing in APIs and interoperable services. This supports rapid experimentation and reduces time-to-market for new ideas.
4. Operationalize Data for Faster Decisions
Acceleration isn’t just about launching faster — it’s about responding faster. That means leveraging real-time data and analytics to make quick, informed decisions about customer needs, product performance, and market opportunities.
Actionable Step: Build real-time data pipelines and dashboards for decision-makers across the business — not just data teams.
5. Accelerate Through Strategic Partnerships
No bank can — or should — try to do it all alone. In today’s rapidly evolving ecosystem, acceleration is often best achieved through strategic partnerships. Collaborating with trusted fintechs and technology providers enables banks to plug into specialized capabilities, reduce internal development burdens, and go to market faster with differentiated offerings.
By partnering with companies like Zafin , banks can offload complex product and pricing configuration from legacy cores, giving business teams the freedom to design, launch, and manage products without lengthy IT cycles. These partnerships bring proven expertise, flexible platforms, and innovation at speed — all while reducing risk and cost.
Actionable Step: Build a partnership strategy focused on capability gaps that slow down your product lifecycle. Look for solution providers with modular, interoperable platforms that integrate easily and empower your teams to move faster with less friction.
The Time to Accelerate Is Now
In the era of Banking Unbound, acceleration is the first step toward redefining what’s possible. By decoupling innovation from legacy constraints and enabling business-led change, banks can move from reactive to responsive — and from slow to standout.
