Published by gbaf mag
Posted on October 23, 2020
4 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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By Nick Ford Chief Technology Evangelist, Mendix
From online banking to contactless payments and Apple Pay, it has been well demonstrated that the financial services industry is significantly ahead of many others when it comes to technology.
Traders, as well as customers, are now armed with the latest advances in technology and able to operate at super speed with more information at their fingertips than ever before.
However, the sector has not been immune from challenges created by COVID-19. The most significant challenge is maintaining the level of innovation they have been historically known for, with constrained budgets and smaller teams.
The pressure is on
The financial services sector is certainly quite complicated. There are many different regulatory bodies that monitor corporate conduct, which can make innovation a slow and arduous task. It also means that every time a new law is implemented, the sector needs to adjust to it, and that can mean anything from revising security protocols to radically changing the way information is processed, transmitted or audited.
This makes the job difficult for IT managers in the sector. Many of the systems they’re dealing with are old fashioned, dating back many decades and therefore not up to standard when it comes to performance and security. With lockdown restrictions meaning most sector staff are working remotely, this adds an extra pressure to IT teams that now have to ensure systems, data and work devices are functioning and always accessible. Digital transformation can help with this and a recent Mendix study found that 76% of IT managers in the sector believe it can improve operational efficiency.
Tech as a necessity
The sector now must be alert due to a new emerging challenge – the tech savvy customer. The modern age means customers are demanding much more from the services they are offered, with two things being highly desired; speed and transparency. As a result, many banks, hedge funds, and investment firms are investing in the appropriate technology to help meet these demands. The data that comes with upgrading ultimately allows financial institutions to better understand their customers and tailor their services more accurately to the changing trends influencing customer behaviour, Being able to have such knowledge is becoming more vital, as the pandemic continues to significantly affect the behaviour patterns of consumers and the preferences driving them.
Investing in technology can also increase efficiency within the sector at a time where teams and budgets are stretched, which can obviously have massive benefits. Digital transformation also leads to faster, better performing systems provides teams with the right tools they need to effectively get their job done. Tech is no longer a fintech privilege – it’s a currency. So much so that nine out of 10 IT leaders in financial services believe their firm will need to invest in digital projects over the next two years, just to survive in a rapidly changing market.
Powering digital transformation with low-code
To manage these different priorities, IT teams need to look beyond themselves and collaborate with different departments to create revenue-generating services that truly answer the clients’ needs – and it needs to empower all developers with the right tools to do so. This improved collaboration between IT and customer-facing staff means that services are designed to suit the needs of the customer-base, whilst reducing the pressure of an already-stretched IT team.
Low-code is one way to foster this collaboration. It requires little coding knowledge or expertise, meaning software development or the creation of business applications can include staff with non-technical backgrounds. Instead of having a back and forth between tech teams and other departments – of which miscommunication is always a risk – the development of apps can be inclusive involving a variety of teams, bringing together those that understand the business problems with those that understand the IT landscape, core systems and services to contribute to the vision of a product. IT stays in control with governance and guardrails built in to ensure compliance to the various standards required.
Digital transformation is an ongoing process in every industry. With low-code programming some of the current complexities and challenges facing the financial services sector can be tackled, allowing it to fully step into the digital age and continue being a hub of technological innovation.
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