Hunting for Innovation? 5 key technologies financial institutions should bet on in 2025

From AI and cloud technologies to biometrics, digital payments and personalized user experiences, 2025 is shaping up to redefine how banks connect with their customers.

Trends set to dominate according to industry leaders

The financial world is transforming at lightning speed. From AI and cloud technologies to biometrics, digital payments and personalized user experiences, 2025 is shaping up to redefine how banks connect with their customers.

We have sit down with the experts behind ebankIT's digital banking platform to explore the trends shaping the future of financial technology and innovation. 

Pedro Azevedo, Chief Product Officer at ebankIT, highlighted key advancements for 2025, emphasizing the transformative potential of hyper-automation powered by AI. His focus? Humanizing digital banking by blending efficiency with a personalized, customer-centric approach.

The best kind of innovation is the one that solves

everybody's problems.

 

Pedro Azevedo, Chief Product Officer

Joaquim Jesus, a Technical Lead, believes that personalization will be the cornerstone of digital banking in 2025. Financial institutions should be able to empower users by offering highly customizable features—such as personalized dashboard interfaces—allowing account holders to tailor their banking experience to their unique preferences.

Regarding mobile banking, Eduardo Burnay, Head of Mobile Development at ebankIT, stressed the significance of wearable banking solutions. As adoption continues to rise, seamless integration across all devices will be essential to delivering a frictionless user experience.

Meanwhile, Rui Araújo, Head of Technology, pointed to the growing importance of modular architecture and microservices. He explained how these innovations are reshaping service architectures, enabling financial institutions to evolve with agility and scalability.

What experts predict about the industry’s future 

1. AI and automation

AI and automation will drive banking innovation in the coming years according to Pedro Azevedo. Rui Araújo agrees, noting that the implementation of open AI services on digital banking platforms is becoming increasingly significant in the fintech and digital banking sectors.

Developments in AI technology will significantly boost the automation of routine tasks, enhancing decision-making processes such as risk management and compliance. Additionally, it will elevate user experiences by enabling hyper-personalization and offering features like robotic advisors.

The experts also highlight the challenge of humanizing automation, as this will often be a crucial factor in the success of these initiatives. How does one humanize automation you ask? It's simple, via hyper-personalization.

2. Personalization

We have incredible opportunities to use AI and machine learning to create personalized banking experiences.

Edurado Burnay, Head of mobile development at ebankIT

Eduardo Burnay emphasizes the remarkable potential of AI and machine learning to develop customized banking experiences, including Smart Financial assistance that provides personalized budget advice, spending analysis, and investment suggestions.

Joaquim Jesus asserts that focusing on personalization is crucial for user empowerment. By offering a range of customizable options, financial institutions enable users to personalize their experiences by selecting preferred operations, modifying their dashboard interface, choosing specific notification types, naming products, and more, allowing them to shape the platform according to their individual preferences.

3. Digital Payments

Burnay notes that to stay competitive in digital banking, the focus should be on contactless payments.

NFC technology facilitates quick and secure transactions, while QR code payments offer straightforward and convenient options for peer-to-peer transfers and in-store purchases thanks to biometric verification through facial or fingerprint. 

Joaquim Jesus agrees and adds that incorporating two-factor authentication is essential for payment transactions, including e-transfers and other activities involving sensitive financial data. This measure safeguards critical actions, ensuring that security remains a fundamental yet unobtrusive aspect of the process.

4. Cybersecurity

AI driven detection allows real time monitoring of transactions to effectively prevent fraud. By embracing it, financial institutions can deliver secure, seamless, and innovative banking experiences that meet the needs of modern users. 

Machine learning models are crucial for identifying unusual activities or potential fraud in real time. Enhancing security can also advance predictive analytics, aiding in anticipating user needs by recommending payment reminders or optimizing savings plans.

The emphasis on data privacy and security will require financial institutions to adopt more robust safeguards for consumer data, aligning AI practices with privacy laws.

Burnay emphasizes that security is a top concern for wearables, as these devices might not offer the same level of protection as smartphones. Ensuring secure data transmission with end-to-end encryption, restricting sensitive operations to more secure devices, and utilizing secure local storage is essential to safeguarding financial data.

With advancements like face ID and touch ID, we will witness a shift towards more seamless and secure authentication methods replacing traditional passwords. Multi-factor authentication, which combines biometrics and other techniques, will become the norm, boosting security and minimizing fraud.

5. Composability - Modular architecture

Rui Araújo says that modular architecture and microservices are playing a crucial role in shaping the evolution of service architectures in digital banking on fintech platforms.

Demand for composable banking applications 
is surging. Banks are pursuing these systems to drive revenue and resolve application complexity.

GARTNER, Composable Technology: A Top Banking Trend for 2024, 11 June 2024

It gives financial institutions the ability to implement new products and services when needed or remove them if necessary at reduced costs. 

Composable technologies reduce maintenance spend and reduce both the cost of transformation and make it less disruptive to the wider business so that going to market is faster, less risky and more cost-efficient. 

Composable architectures also make compliance updates simpler to enact, ensuring faster compliance with regulations, reduced operational risks, and greater agility in responding to market demands. 

What's in store for ebankIT in 2025?

In 2025, ebankIT will unveil its quickest and most efficient platform yet, featuring cutting-edge front-end technology. This will be integrated with a highly specialized microservice architecture to deliver an exceptionally fast user experience.

Cloud optimization will reach a new level at ebankIT, and this will enable its customers to really explore more options in terms of how to rationalize their infrastructure costs. 

Pedro Azevedo, Chief Product Officer, who oversees product strategy including both the roadmap and its execution, assures that next year ebankIT will set new usability benchmarks.

This will be achieved through various ongoing initiatives focused on design, accessibility standards, and user testing, all aimed at enhancing user satisfaction.

Explore more of the upcoming technologies that you should prioritize in 2025 by reading the complete 2025 Trends and predictions report.