TECH & AI
These aren’ t new challenges, says SaaScada’ s CEO and Co-Founder Nelson Wootton. Rather, they are at the heart of why he and Co-Founder Steve Round originally founded the business.“ We just didn’ t feel that core banking architecture or delivery was fit for purpose,” he says.“ Banks typically spend months deploying new products and services to either existing or new customers and that’ s no good – months are a lifetime in a sector like finance.
“ We’ re in a rapidly changing world, where organisations need to respond quickly and effectively to changing circumstances around them all the time. It’ s near-impossible to do that if you’ re using older legacy technology and have a risk-averse mindset when it comes to changing it.”
Core banking as a barrier According to SaaScada, 62 % of leaders say that core banking software – the foundational technologies and platforms that manage essential operations from account management and transactions through to customer data – has a chokehold on their ability to innovate.
“ Banks have vast amounts of software,” says Nelson.“ Customers see some of that in mobile banking or online banking, but an enormous amount of technology sits beneath that on different layers. Under the surface you’ ll have CRM systems for customer records, document management, know your customer and anti-money laundering processes and more.
“ Underneath this are multiple layers, including risk and underwriting decisioning software for origination processes, a product engine that effectively delivers all the products to a bank’ s customers, ledgers and integrators to local payment systems, then other integrations that depend on activity – typically things for international payments, card processing or exchanges that bring other assets into core banking.”
The complexity and scope of this technology results in two core problems,
“ Banks typically spend months deploying new products and services to either existing or new customers and that’ s no good – months are a lifetime in a sector like finance”
NELSON WOOTTON CEO AND CO-FOUNDER SAASCADA
82 August 2025