It’s Time to Future-Proof Your Open Banking Infrastructure with Scalable Process Orchestration and Automation

Open Banking is changing the financial services ecosystem. Traditional banks and financial institutions are finding new ways to partner with fintechs and nonbanking vendors to access new markets, grow new revenue streams, and deliver the type of hyper-personalized services banking customers now demand—all good reasons why the pace of Open Banking is steadily increasing. Recent research projects the Open Banking market will grow at an annual rate of 23.3% (CAGR) from 2024 to 2033, reaching a projected value of $203.8 billion by 2033.

Two important factors are contributing to this evolution: a shift in mindset by banking leaders that data is a collaborative resource instead of a guarded secret; and the ongoing modernization of enterprise systems from monolithic platforms to cloud-native, composable architectures. Both present challenges for enterprise architects working to create more open, interconnected systems. Process orchestration can help manage these challenges and transform core banking systems for the Open Banking era.

IT leaders should prioritize these capabilities to future-proof operations for the Open Banking era

For enterprise architects, Open Banking is about balancing innovation with compliance and operational efficiency. That’s not easy to do when faced with a complex web of emerging technology alongside underlying IT architecture that may still be running critical components on legacy systems, including mainframe.

These systems were not built to interact with modern APIs or Open Banking frameworks, making integration difficult. They also may lack robust authentication, monitoring, and security mechanisms necessary for secure data sharing, as well as real-time processing capabilities.

And modern systems present their own challenges with siloed processes, hidden business logic, and varying data schemas that prevent integration. In short, banks have a lot of work to do to transform their architectures and capitalize on Open Banking opportunities. It’s more complicated than just offering new APIs.

To simplify the complexity inherent in the core banking processes and establish a future-ready framework for Open Banking, we recommend tech leaders start by prioritizing the following capabilities:

Of course, the next step to achieving success in Open Banking is being able to coordinate all of these capabilities into a seamless, strategic workflow. Process orchestration is the best tool for this task.

Process orchestration helps transform Open Banking capabilities into strategic products and services 

Process orchestration is an essential tool for integrating, automating, and optimizing processes as part of Open Banking initiatives. It empowers seamless integration and automation of multiple application components from end to end and brings visibility into those processes from start to finish—which is crucial in the banking industry for operational transparency, auditing, and compliance.

The transparency enabled by process orchestration also encourages new ideas through collaborative development. For banking technology leaders, it can create an opportunity to collaborate with business leaders to reimagine financial services, break down existing limitations, and create more inclusive, efficient, and customer-centric financial experiences through the strategic use of technology.

For example, consider the following potential use cases for process orchestration in Open Banking:

• Operationalizing AI: Every firm wants to get ahead of the trend but often struggles to deploy AI solutions and prove their value. Process orchestration can help speed up experimentation so you can iterate faster and unlock the value of emerging technology in ways that help you stand out. As an open platform, you can deploy new AI-infused processes faster because it fits within your existing software development lifecycle, can integrate any technology—whether homegrown or third party—and works with any programming language and deployment model.
• Smarter lending: Faster credit risk assessment is possible by using real-time access to transaction and account data. Process orchestration integrates workflows across banks, third-party providers, and credit agencies to aggregate multiple data sources and determine creditworthiness in real time. Orchestration coordinates the end-to-end journey from application submission through verification, underwriting, and payment, reducing manual effort and accelerating decision-making. As a result, consumers have faster access to tailored loan options and banks can better convey trust and security in the process.
• Optimizing payments: Real-time payments are a growing trend globally. Process orchestration coordinates the end-to-end flow from initiation through settlement. This involves reliable and secure integration between banks, third-party providers, and payment networks. Orchestration enables real-time data exchange and seamless payment processing. It also manages error handling, transaction tracking, and reconciliation with full visibility. By streamlining these processes through orchestration, banks can better leverage payment data to improve other areas of the business like financial crime.
• Mitigating financial crime: Orchestration enables you to take a multi-vendor strategy by weaving together a variety of technologies—such as homegrown fraud models and third-party fraud detection platforms—as part of your end-to-end due diligence workflows. Banks then have more freedom to move from periodic to perpetual monitoring to help mitigate financial crime and improve risk posture. It helps analyze, identify, and stop bad actors early and provides rich data for faster investigations by securely aggregating data from various sources.  
• Personalized financial products: Process orchestration automates and streamlines workflows that analyze customer data and match individuals with tailored financial solutions for insurance, loans, and investments based on transaction history. It integrates data from multiple accounts via secure APIs, ensuring compliance with Open Banking regulations, and manages tasks like customer profiling, creditworthiness assessment, and product recommendations in real time. By enabling seamless data exchange, process orchestration helps financial institutions respond to individual needs, which improves customer satisfaction and drives better financial outcomes.

These are just a few of the potential use cases for process orchestration in Open Banking. In such a rapidly evolving banking and technology ecosystem, however, the potential could be limitless.

Success in Open Banking will require IT to lead the way with agility and innovation

Open Banking products and services have the potential to generate new revenue through more innovative, customer-centric experiences. However, to realize that potential, IT leaders will need to champion programs to rapidly modernize legacy systems, enhance data security, and adapt to increased operational complexity.

The key competitive advantage in the next banking era lies in creating composable banking frameworks that can seamlessly orchestrate and automate processes from end to end with unparalleled control and transparency. IT leaders will be challenged to lead initiatives to overcome their bank’s complex technology ecosystems and legacy limitations, plus align internal and external teams to future-proof operations and continuously adapt.

Financial institutions that achieve the most success will be led by those who leverage tools like process orchestration to deliver differentiated products and experiences with greater control and speed at enterprise scale.

Learn how Camunda can help your institution scale innovation in banking and financial services. Schedule a custom demo today.