Celent’s Dimensions research is based on its comprehensive IT Dimensions survey of over 1,000+ executives at financial institutions and offers granular insights into where banks are focusing their technology investments.
Celent has now published its latest Dimensions report: Europe Retail Banking IT Pressures & Priorities 2025 and further information to access the report is available via this link.
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The banking industry in Europe has been experiencing further change in 2025. Against a background of rising political and economic uncertainty, increasing competitive pressures, and a lengthening list of compliance requirements, financial institutions in the region are under pressure to deliver more for customers at a greater pace – and at a lower cost – than ever before.
At the same time, the urgency to invest in product development and support revenue and margin improvement is also growing. The combination of these factors is driving growth in technology investment across the board as banks look to deliver the greater agility and operational efficiency required to navigate today’s operating environment.
The plans and budgets of any individual bank will be driven by their own individual needs and priorities, but there are some important themes at regional level.
The executives polled for Celent’s 2025 Dimensions study are clear that delivering on the need for greater resilience and product development will lead the agenda this year. Digital account opening, open banking, broader enhancements to the digital channels, digital identity, and launching new digital-only services are all prominent areas to which many banks are allocating resources.
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By GlobalDataUnderpinning this will be strong growth in the adoption of AI and advanced data analytics technologies (including GenAI), which will support a range of use cases across the front and middle office.
In many cases, these projects will build on the investments made into data management through 2024. Digital identity and automation are also important focus areas, not least in supporting improvements to experiences in the digital channels. The further adoption of cloud services will be a common element through many of these projects.
Key findings from the research include
- The operating environment remains challenging. Across the region, 54% of banks believe it is more challenging to win and retain customers than it was 12 months ago.
- Product development is high on the agenda. In total, 50% of banks in Europe report that investing to deliver enhanced products or propositions is one of the three most important drivers of their technology strategy.
- In response, growth in technology budgets is increasing. The executives surveyed in Celent’s Dimensions study indicated that IT spending will grow by 5.0% on average this year. However, given the potential for economic disruption caused by the tariff policy of the US government, it is not yet clear if budget growth will occur at that level.
- The biggest single product-level priority this year is digital account opening, which is a priority for 38% of banks in the region. Other top investment areas are open banking and open finance, and other improvements to the digital channels.
- Underpinning this will be further investments in AI technologies. This is the single biggest area of technology investment for 29% of banks in Europe and will support a range of use cases across the front, middle, and back office. GenAI will continue to be an important element of the broader push towards greater use of data across the organisation, and 64% of banks plan to launch customer-facing services using the technology in 2025.
