Banking and Finance

Underestimating legacy system complexity

Core platforms that have been in place for decades often require specialised integration approaches. Assuming they can be connected like modern systems leads to delays and fragile workarounds. Proper assessment, planning for adapters or batch processes and early technical scoping is essential.

Siloed project ownership

When IT leads integration without involving business stakeholders, or vice versa, the result is often a technically functional solution that doesn't meet the needs of frontline teams or customer expectations. Cross-functional collaboration from day one is key to aligning outcomes with business goals.

Poor data quality and governance

Integration magnifies data issues. Without cleansing and standardising data from multiple sources (e.g. core banking, CRM, KYC), errors and inconsistencies propagate across systems. This undermines analytics, reporting and compliance, which can damage trust when customers see mismatched or incorrect data.

Failing to design for change

The pace of regulatory updates, fintech collaboration and API evolution means integration must be flexible. Integrations that are hard-coded or inflexible can’t easily accommodate new services, APIs, or regulatory changes. Using scalable platforms, reusable APIs and modular architecture reduce the cost of change.

Ignoring regulatory and security requirements early

Integration efforts that overlook security architecture, audit trails, consent flows, or data residency considerations early on often face compliance gaps. These are not features to add later, they must be built into the foundation of every integration design.

Overlooking monitoring and operational readiness

Once integrations are live, they must be monitored for failures, performance and compliance. Skipping observability, alerting and support planning leads to undetected issues and slow incident response. Operational dashboards and automated health checks are critical for ongoing reliability. When IT leads integration without involving business stakeholders, or vice versa, the result is often a technically functional solution that doesn't meet the needs of frontline teams or customer expectations. Cross-functional collaboration from day one is key to aligning outcomes with business goals.

Over-customising when standard connectors would suffice

Many institutions build custom connectors where mature, vendor-supported integrations already exist. This adds complexity and maintenance overhead. Standardised, supported connectors often offer a safer, faster route with fewer downstream risks.

Not aligning to an enterprise integration strategy

Ad hoc or siloed integration efforts lead to point-to-point chaos. Without an enterprise strategy, institutions end up with redundant connections, governance gaps and rising operational risk. A shared platform, data model and API-first approach ensures long-term scalability.

Lack of real-time capability planning

Many institutions plan integrations as batch jobs or overnight syncs, even when the business case calls for real-time processing (e.g. fraud detection, instant payments, mobile alerts). Designing the wrong integration pattern for the required latency can result in performance bottlenecks or failed SLAs.

Neglecting change management and training

New integrations often change how staff work or how data flows between departments. Without clear communication, user training and operational readiness, even technically sound projects can fail to deliver impact.