Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on March 16, 2022
6 min readLast updated: February 8, 2026
Add as preferred source on Google
By Ada Westerinen, Director for EMEA Solutions at MuleSoft
The pandemic transformed the way many organisations do business, and nowhere more so than in the financial services sector. Some 43% of global consumers last year claimed the way they bank changed due to COVID-19, as branches closed and customers were forced towards digital channels. Now they’ve seen the benefits of doing more of their banking online, the genie’s out of the bottle, and there’s no going back. Today’s consumers expect more seamless, connected digital banking experiences than ever before.
This is good news for newer, digital-native fintechs, but less so for larger incumbents. The former have agility built into their DNA, enabling them to form new partnerships and quickly roll out new products and services to meet the rapidly changing needs of the market. However, traditional banks have historically struggled with legacy technology, and find it difficult to free-up and connect their data and systems to deliver the seamless experiences their customers now demand.
A composable future
The rise of open banking gave traditional financial institutions the foundation they need to address these challenges and embrace a more digitally connected future. It heralded the beginning of a new era of cooperation between third parties, and of traditional banks evolving into service providers. However, if they are to fully reap the rewards, banks must go beyond basic compliance and look at how they can harness their API ecosystems to behave more like a fintech, and deliver the digital-first experiences their customers desire.
UK foreign exchange (FX) and cross-border payment service provider Crown Agents Bank is a prime example of how a traditional bank has been able to harness an API-strategy to meet the needs of its customers in today’s digital-first world. Crown Agents Bank wanted to move away from its historic reliance on custom code and tightly coupled, one-off integrations between front-end services and core banking systems to ensure it could process a greater number of digital transactions. With an API-led approach, the bank became a composable enterprise that can seamlessly connect with its fintech partners and scale rapidly, increasing the number of payments it can process from 1,500 to 50,000 per day.
Here are five ways traditional banks can take a leaf out of the fintech book to drive their own digital banking success stories:
As more traditional financial institutions turn to an API-led strategy to close the gap with fintechs, we’ll enter a new era of fast-paced digital banking innovation and seamless customer experiences. Their success in delivering these strategies may well define the industry’s winners and losers over the next decade and beyond.
Digital banking refers to the online delivery of banking services, allowing customers to conduct financial transactions via the internet, including account management and payments.
APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are sets of protocols that allow different software applications to communicate with each other, facilitating data exchange and integration.
Automation in banking involves using technology to perform tasks without human intervention, improving efficiency and reducing errors in processes such as loan approvals and transaction processing.
Customer experience in banking refers to the overall perception and satisfaction a customer has with a bank's services, influenced by interactions across various channels and touchpoints.
Explore more articles in the Banking category
