The rise of embedded banking and digital ecosystems has reshaped the financial services landscape. While the concept of collaborating with specialist partners is widely celebrated, in practice, these partnerships often serve a tactical role, bridging product or capability gaps and accelerating time-to-market, rather than reflecting a long-term strategic vision. Many incumbent banks have followed a predictable pattern: they start by partnering with fintech specialists to test new offerings, and once the value is proven, they acquire these companies to fully integrate their capabilities. Others choose to build these services internally. As a result, today’s incumbents are increasingly offering solutions that were once exclusive to fintechs, e.g. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services, acquiring and issuing services, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), even stablecoins. At the same time, a reverse trend is unfolding. Fintechs that launched with a narrow, specialized focus are stead...
We have become virtually " zero tolerant " for digital failures. Customers expect seamless, 24/7 always-on services , regardless of maintenance windows (like backups or software upgrades), peak loads, or even disasters. For financial institutions , the stakes are even higher: downtime doesn’t just disrupt transactions. It erodes trust, breaches compliance, and damages reputation. Achieving near-zero downtime has become a non-negotiable requirement, driving IT teams to implement increasingly sophisticated strategies to ensure availability, protect data integrity, and reduce recovery times. At the same time, regulatory frameworks like DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) in the EU, the Operational Resilience Framework (CP29/19) in the UK or the Hong Kong Supervisory Policy Manual OR-2, now mandate digital resilience in the financial sector. Compliance is not just about avoiding penalties, it’s about securing trust and ensuring operational continuity...