Santosh Radhakrishnan, CCO at XYB, an end-to-end coreless banking platform, recently commented on the future of banking and the different challenges the financial services sector is facing. Santosh also talked about the key pain points that presently exist in the banking sector.
XYB claims that they’re not just changing banking services — they’re enhancing them. Their mission is to fast-track the global shift towards banking that’s not only innovative but also universally accessible and inclusive.
In today’s fast-paced digital age, traditional banking systems need to improve to meet the evolving needs of modern customers. That’s where XYB steps in; they claim they’re spearheading the 5th generation of core banking with their coreless banking platform.
Their platform isn’t just another product in the market; it’s a product of years of development, refinement, and stringent testing. It stands as a testament to their team’s expertise.
Having launched Monese – a smart money service that has transformed the financial lives of millions across 31 countries, they took the technology and their know-how and launched XYB. It powers Monese and the propositions of 2 global tier-1 banks.
At XYB, they envision banking as an effortless, transparent, and profoundly personal experience. Their technology, advanced analytics, and flexible modular architecture empower banks and non-banks to offer customized banking solutions.
By adopting MACH (microservices, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, headless) principles and BIAN (Banking Industry Architecture Network) framework, their clients can choose from the best tools on the market today and provide a structure that makes it easy to add, replace, or remove technologies in the future.
Our conversation with Santosh Radhakrishnan is shared below.
Crowdfund Insider: What pain points currently exist in the banking sector?
Santosh Radhakrishnan: The banking sector has already evolved from old mainframes to today’s cloud-based technologies, but there is still a need to modernize and improve the offering for end users. I believe that what the banking sector needs is a very componentized and piecemeal business approach that will aid further industry transformation and enable them to be more flexible, achieve higher efficiencies and a faster time to value.
As a response to recognizing this needed transformation, Monese launched XYB in May 2023. While we already serviced millions of customers across Europe and the UK, we wanted to create a platform that was the next step in removing the dependency on traditional technology and old legacy processes. XYB is a ‘coreless’ banking platform provider that addresses the £700 billion global banking technology and embedded finance market. XYB leverages highly configurable and scalable microservices architecture and provides a turnkey solution with a pre-integrated partner ecosystem.
XYB’s technology brings together best-of-breed services and partners to help banks avoid a risky journey of ‘repair or replace’ and instead commence a journey of progressive transformation that involves the ability to choose and change competencies. For example, if a company wanted to launch a new product, they could combine it with our modern technology and implement several combinations of solutions. This freedom and flexibility are going to drive the future of banking technology, and XYB is changing the narrative with our coreless banking platform.
Crowdfund Insider: Why is coreless banking important?
Santosh Radhakrishnan: Coreless banking will fast-track the transformation journey of many banks that are moving away from their existing landscape and towards more modern, cloud-native and agile ways of doing operations.
The biggest winner in this transformation will be the end customer. From better customer experiences to better financial products, consumers will start getting the kind of service they might expect from every modern fintech right across the board, even from a trusted high street bank. From a business perspective, banks will be able to make this transformation a reality at a speed that will really help their business grow while also creating huge benefits for bank operatives who can become more productive and fulfilled.
Coreless banking will also support sustainability and carbon footprint reduction in the financial services industry because clients don’t have to rip and replace entire systems – getting rid of good components they have in the process. Instead, we can re-use technology and projects that are best suited to each client. At XYB, we are confident that our componentized and modular approach will help financial services companies avoid unnecessary projects, save precious carbon emissions, and ultimately create a better world.
Crowdfund Insider: What is the importance of AI technologies in the banking and finance sector?
Santosh Radhakrishnan: While there are many doom-mongering headlines about AI, I actually believe that it is a fascinating technology that will help to streamline the transformation of the banking industry. It’s clear that others across the business world also have this attitude, with 35% of global companies already using AI, according to IBM.
One obvious example of AI positively changing the banking industry is to improve roles – for example; Risk Officers will be able to use AI to code risk parameters within a banking system, freeing them up to focus on what is actually critical to the business and its stakeholders.
Another example is how generative AI can help banks change and modernize by ensuring that they can use modern systems in the most efficient way. We are championing this technology at XYB, and we recently announced a partnership with Google Cloud that will enable us to leverage generative AI for our clients to streamline processes and improve compliance.
Specifically, XYB will use Google Cloud’s generative AI and machine learning tools to enable its bank, non-bank, and Fintech company customers to build cutting-edge products and propositions with unprecedented speed and ease. XYB’s platform is a game-changer on its own, but by leveraging Google Cloud’s generative AI, banks can now automate largely manual processes like investigations and risk management related to onboarding and blocked payments.
By using AI-driven natural language processing, bank risk teams can also speed up risk policy development and updates by testing them in XYB’s sandbox without interrupting ongoing operations. This will vastly improve their ability to meet fast-changing regulatory demands and compliance strengths. Using Google Cloud’s generative AI tools will also reduce operational cost for banks, non-banks and fintech companies by providing customers of the platform users a capability to find answers to common questions, and solving complaints without the need for human intervention.
This partnership is poised to reshape the industry by empowering product owners to launch hyper-personalised products to their target customers without depending on the technology team or having a deep technical knowledge of core systems, enabling financial institutions to unlock their true potential and transform the future of finance.
Crowdfund Insider: What does the future hold for the banking industry?
Santosh Radhakrishnan: With innovation and advancement happening all the time, the future of the banking industry is incredibly exciting. The industry is changing every single month, and this pace keeps everyone on their toes and encourages us to innovate. I strongly believe that this pace of change and the acceptance of it is going to lead to some very big things – and it is happening at a very quick rate.
Even the most risk-averse players are now putting their necks on the line to ensure they can become real disruptors in the industry and do things in a different way, showing how much the industry has adapted to accept and embrace change. Our business models are changing for the better and reflecting that all players want to change the world and impact how our industry grows and develops.
In fact, there are already some impressive innovations being implemented in the finance industry. For example, at XYB, we are working on the next evolution and disruption in banking, with the creation of our coreless banking platform that is proven to give Tier 1 and digital challenger banks and fintechs huge operational efficiencies, lower costs of doing business, and incredible time to value. XYB is a visionary provider of an end-to-end coreless banking platform designed to address the shortcomings of traditional core banking systems in meeting the evolving demands of modern customers.
In the long-term, there are several innovations we can expect to see changing the banking and finance industry for good. As mentioned, one of these will be the use of AI. We are at the beginning of our journey with AI, with businesses just starting to accept applications such as AI-driven customer service and AI job-driven technologies. I am confident that AI will only help enhance many elements of our industry.