Core Banking: Why 2026 Will See Progressive Modernisation Soar

Why It Matters

Modernizing core banking systems with AI‑enabled, modular architectures will protect margins, boost agility, and meet rising demand for hyper‑personalized digital experiences, reshaping competitive dynamics across the financial sector.

Key Takeaways

• Banks must prioritize reliability, adaptability, and customer centricity.
• Progressive modernization shifts to modular, composable core banking architectures.
• AI will accelerate core upgrades and enable hyper‑personalized services.
• Legacy systems hinder innovation; confidence needed to replace them safely.
• Faster digital banking rollouts will improve margins and customer satisfaction.

Summary

The FinextraTV interview with Will Moroney, Temenos’ chief revenue officer, spotlights core‑banking transformation as the defining agenda for 2026. Moroney frames the conversation around three enduring pillars—reliability, adoptability and customer‑centricity—and argues that banks must modernise the underlying core platforms to keep pace with evolving digital expectations.

Key insights include a shift toward progressive, modular modernization, where composable architectures replace monolithic legacy stacks. AI emerges as a catalyst, promising faster deployment, smarter upgrade paths, and hyper‑personalized client experiences. Moroney cites Temenos’ portfolio—over a thousand core‑banking clients and 315 projects in 2025—as evidence of accelerating activity in core‑system refreshes.

Notable examples underscore the urgency: many institutions still run systems dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, creating operational debt that hampers margin growth. Moroney emphasizes that AI can both reduce risk during migration and deliver “branch‑like” personalization through digital channels, echoing the desire for “teller‑knows‑your‑name” experiences across fintech platforms.

The implications are clear. Banks that gain confidence to retire legacy cores will achieve greater agility, improve cost efficiency and meet heightened customer expectations. Conversely, firms that lag risk losing market share to more nimble competitors leveraging AI‑driven, modular platforms. The 2026 horizon therefore represents a pivotal moment for sustainable, technology‑led differentiation in banking.

Original Description

Joining the FinextraTV virtual studio, Will Moroney, Chief Revenue Officer, Temenos provided an overview of how 2026 could be a year of accelerated implementation for the modernisation of core banking systems. Moroney agrees that 2025 saw institutional experimentation across AI, partnerships and other modernisation efforts and that, as banks - with technical debt and older core banking systems - progress to match their modern counterparts, 2026 will ramp up in speed. Moroney shares his opinion on the 3 key themes of modern banking: reliability, adaptability and customer centricity - with a belief that hyper-personalisation in the digital age is mirroring the teller experiences of the 1980's.

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