Systems architecture perspective on digital transformation for financial services

Abstract

The evolution of technology has had a dramatic impact on the way organizations conduct business. These changes have been felt throughout all industries and financial services is not immune to this transformation. However, Financial Services has unique conditions that have impacted the evolution and use of technology within the organization. These conditions include external factors: being a highly regulated industry, the impacts of globalization, the interconnectivity of the global financial markets, and capital intensive nature of the industry in addition to internal factors of being a highly risk averse culture, slow to progress or change and bureaucratic by design. These factors and many others are the key elements adding to the complexity and challenges of evolving this industry. Demands from the market and competitors are forcing financial services organizations to rethink their digital strategy and evolve at a pace closer to the expectations of the market. The challengers mainly the FinTechs and large Technology companies are looking to get into financial services whether it be through partnerships or subsidiaries. There is significant concern across the industry that a newcomer will take market share and/or significantly reduce the profitability of these organizations. These concerns have been the driving force for the majority of the industry focusing on the digital transformation.

Digital transformation has a very broad scope of implication and considerations. With the need and the focus of the industry on digital transformation, there is still a notable lack of progression within financial services. The focus for this thesis is on what architectural components and drivers for or against the change are impacting the progress in financial services and what consideration should be made for the future state to allow for digital transformation in the financial services industry through architectural design.