SBS is Doubling Down on SaaS to Power the Next Wave of Bank Modernization

As banks continue on their digital transformation journeys, the fintech companies supporting them have become more than vendors–but trusted partners.

One such company is SBS, which has undergone a significant organizational shift over the past year, evolving from a services-led business to a SaaS-focused product organization. This transformation has created new opportunities for the company to strengthen its partnerships with the 1,500+ banks and financial institutions it works with, by building products that directly address clients’ needs and guiding them as they adopt new technology, leverage AI and move beyond legacy systems.

We sat down with Andrew Steadman, who joined SBS as its Chief Product Officer last year, to discuss the company’s continued SaaS transformation. He shared more about what initially drew him to SBS, how the team approaches customer-driven innovation and what bank CTOs are prioritizing as they weigh new deployments in 2026 and beyond.

You’ve spent much of your career in the fintech product space. What first drew you to SBS, and what sets it apart from others in the industry?

What initially drew me to SBS was the company’s transition from a more service-focused organization to a true product company. As a product leader, guiding that evolution felt like the perfect next challenge in my career.

From day one, it was clear that SBS is genuinely committed to helping its clients succeed. Unlike many fintech vendors focused solely on selling software, SBS invests in deeply understanding client problems and delivering tailored, purpose-built solutions.

From a product standpoint, SBS maintains a sharp focus on its core product offerings and target markets. This clarity drives well-defined product goals and ensures alignment across teams – from product and engineering to customer-facing roles.

Since joining SBS, you’ve helped lead its shift from a services model to a SaaS-focused organization. What did that transformation look like?

SBS began its transformation from a services-oriented business, while still part of Sopra Steria, to a product- and SaaS-focused organization following the Axway acquisition last year. This shift doesn’t happen overnight and it’s a deliberate, multi-phase journey.

The first priority was education. We ensured the entire organization understood the implications of moving from selling more bespoke solutions to selling products. This meant equipping our sales team, for example, with the tools and information they needed to navigate the shift and position SaaS solutions effectively.

A critical shift came in data governance. As a services provider, we helped clients manage their own data. Now, as a SaaS company hosting client data in secure cloud environments, we bear direct responsibility for its safety, which is especially critical given that our clients operate in the financial services sector.

This hands-on work with client data has been invaluable for our product strategy. It gives us real-time insight into the challenges our clients face, which enables us to build more effective solutions. Many clients still operate in a hybrid model, managing some data on-premise while leveraging our cloud platform. Our perspective as host and former advisor allows us to design products that seamlessly support this reality, not just a pure SaaS ideal.

SBS is known for developing products in response to customer needs and market changes. How do you ensure customer feedback is effectively integrated into new product innovations?

At SBS, we’ve introduced a market-centric product management methodology that anchors every decision in a market perspective. And our clients are a key part of that market we define. This is fundamental in our evolution from a services provider to a product company as we shift our focus from bespoke implementations to scalable technology solutions that address quantifiable problems across our client base.

The methodology emphasizes speaking to customers and data. Product teams actively engage customers and the broader market and analyze data points to ensure new features are validated by real need.

One example where we leveraged the methodology is WERO, the new unified digital payments initiative in Europe. Multiple clients expressed urgency to integrate with WERO to streamline payments. By combining this feedback with our existing technology assets, we rapidly launched a solution – delivering immediate value without starting from scratch.

What are some of the biggest challenges CTOs at banks are facing today, and how is SBS helping them address these pain points?

There are three main challenges CTOs at banks are focusing on today, and we at SBS are helping them solve them. They are:

• Adopting new technology: No bank wants to fall behind the pack as peers implement emerging solutions. For example, CTOs everywhere want to leverage their data to drive business returns. At SBS, we work closely with these CTOs to assess needs and deploy high-impact technologies.
• Striking the right balance with AI: Bank CTOs see AI’s potential but struggle to scale it effectively. For example, we heard from one bank that they'd encouraged staff to develop AI agents, but now face hundreds of untracked tools with unclear value. At SBS, we help banks cut through the hype with governance and targeted, value-driven AI solutions.
• Moving off legacy systems: No bank wants to rip and replace core platforms due to risk, cost and training challenges – but modernization is essential. At SBS, we guide banks through progressive convergence, incrementally upgrading their stacks to stay modern and agile. There’s no “end” to digital transformation, so this approach ensures they adopt new technologies as they emerge—without falling behind.

As banks evaluate new technology deployments, what are the top three factors shaping their decisions today?

The top three factors that are shaping banks' technology decisions today are:

1. Customer impact: Banks no longer view technology as a “nice-to-have.” They invest only in initiatives that deliver measurable outcomes for their customers. Modernization demands significant time and capital, so every project must clearly articulate its end-customer value before approval.
2. Time to value: Banks can no longer settle for long, multi-year technology deployments without ROI. Today, they are looking for solutions that generate returns within months, not years, even during phased integration.
3. Regulatory alignment: With each new technology project they take on, banks need to demonstrate to regulators that they are taking tangible steps to improve their risk posture and remove financial, technological, or operational risks from the business.

Which emerging technologies have had the biggest impact over the past year on the way banks serve their customers?

Many might default to thinking AI is the natural answer here, but AI isn't yet at a point where it can have the most significant impact on customers. If you ask me in a year, then maybe.

Over the past year, the technology that’s had the greatest impact is instant payments and the speed of money movement.

For example, when a small business makes a sale, it typically needs to wait 3 to 5 days for the payment to be deposited into its account before it can spend it, which complicates cash flow.Now, with instant payments, small businesses can access their cash near instantaneously, reducing cash flow burdens.

The new speed of payments is also creating room for innovations in the embedded finance space. We saw the rise of embedded banking services with buy now, pay later, and now, with instant payments, there is even more room for innovation.

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, what can we expect from SBS in terms of new product offerings?

Next year, we will continue to focus on our core product offerings across core banking and lending as we advance our long-term strategy. As these offerings evolve, we are prioritizing enhancements to the digital experience for our clients across both customer-facing and employee-facing interfaces. Notably, we plan to launch an AI platform that will empower bank employees and their customers to leverage their data and interact with existing systems in new and more effective ways.

We are also executing a long-term product strategy that leverages the strengths of both Axway and SBS to better serve our combined client base.