ABanks and financial services businesses are navigating technological changes to adhere to regulations like DORA, while the AI Act will shape their modernization journey. Meeting new security and anti-money laundering expectations, exploiting the potential of generative AI, and addressing end-of-life technology while providing a resilient and excellent customer service is an ongoing challenge and opportunity to excel.

ADespite often being overlooked, mainframe technology remains crucial in the financial sector. Research by Kyndryl found that “89% of surveyed enterprises, including many financial services organizations, still see mainframes as essential to their operations”.¹ Mainframes offer optimal performance, reliability and robust security for mission-critical workloads.

ASome key fundamentals for starting or accelerating the transformation journey:

1. Adopt a hybrid approach by determining the right optimal platform for the right workload to best leverage the strengths of both cloud and mainframe.

2. Securely unlock mainframe data through APIs for use in new and innovative ways.

3. Invest in training the application development workforce to equip new developers with skills in mainframe technologies.

4. Recognize that transformation is an ongoing journey, requiring constant re-evaluation and adaptation to determine the best business outcomes.

¹Kyndryl´s 2024 State of Mainframe Modernization Survey Report