You’ve seen banking evolve from manual processes to cloud-native solutions. If you had to explain this transition to those unfamiliar, how would you do it?
Banking has evolved from manual processes and legacy systems to cloud-native solutions, making core banking as accessible as downloading an app for back-office needs. These modern platforms offer on-demand scalability, robust security, and regulatory compliance, reducing infrastructure overhead while enhancing agility. This transformation enables financial institutions to focus on innovation, optimize operations, and deliver superior customer experiences.
How does your role relate to coding elastic banking solutions?
I work as a Product Owner for Cloud Account Management, focusing on designing and managing scalable, flexible, and cloud-native banking solutions. My role involves collaborating with engineering teams to build an API-first, microservices-driven architecture that ensures seamless integration and high performance. By leveraging cloud-native principles, we create elastic banking solutions that optimize costs, enhance operational efficiency, and support the evolving needs of modern financial institutions.
Why is your work critical to SBS’s transformation?
My work is central to SBS’s transformation, supporting the next-generation Digital Core Banking SaaS solution. By modernizing banking operations, reducing legacy system dependencies, and enhancing agility, we help banks meet the growing demand for seamless digital experiences, real-time processing, and cost-efficient solutions, ensuring we stay ahead of evolving regulatory and customer expectations.
If banking was a video game, what level are we at right now in cloud-native adoption? And what’s the “final boss” to defeat?
Right now, we’re still at the early levels of cloud-native adoption in banking—let’s call it the ‘tutorial’ or ‘easy mode.’ While banks have started migrating to the cloud, many still rely on legacy systems, and full transformation is a long journey. As for the ‘final boss’? Banking is so vast that predicting one ultimate challenge is tough. However, major hurdles like achieving real-time global transaction processing, regulatory harmonization across regions, and ensuring bulletproof security at scale could be some of the toughest battles ahead.
What’s the one feature you wish banks would adopt faster but they’re still hesitant about?
AI-powered personalized banking can transform how customers manage finances by providing tailored insights and smarter decision-making. However, banks are hesitant due to concerns over data privacy, regulatory compliance, and integrating AI with legacy systems.
At the same time, many still believe cloud banking is less secure than traditional systems. In reality, cloud providers invest heavily in security, often exceeding the capabilities of legacy infrastructure. The real risk lies in poor implementation, not the cloud itself. Overcoming these barriers could make banking more intuitive, secure, and customer-centric.
Some people still think cloud banking means their money is floating in the sky—what’s the best way to debunk cloud myths?
A great way to debunk the myth that cloud banking means money is ‘floating in the sky’ is to remind people that their money was never physically in a bank vault either—it has always been digital, just stored on different servers. Cloud banking simply moves these systems to a highly secure and scalable environment, like upgrading from an old, bulky safe to an ultra-secure, high-tech vault with 24/7 monitoring.
Plus, it allows real-time updates and seamless transactions without downtime, ensuring faster innovation and operational continuity, unlike traditional banking systems that require lengthy maintenance. So no, your money isn’t floating in the clouds—it’s just chilling in a much smarter, faster, and safer home!
If you had unlimited resources, what would be your dream cloud-native banking project?
If I had unlimited resources, my dream cloud-native banking project would be revolutionizing trade finance with a fully digital, intelligent, and automated platform. Trade finance is complex, with every transaction presenting a unique business scenario, yet all must adhere to a single Universal Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) standard. A cloud-native solution leveraging AI and blockchain could streamline document verification, reduce fraud, and enable real-time tracking of transactions. By eliminating manual inefficiencies and enhancing transparency, this platform would redefine how global trade operates, making it faster, more secure, and seamlessly integrated with banking ecosystems
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned while working on cloud-native projects?
The key lesson from working on cloud-native projects is to keep solutions simple and well-documented, ensuring smooth implementation, easy maintenance, and scalability. Clear documentation helps teams adopt and extend solutions efficiently. Building elastic banking on the cloud enables scalable, flexible systems that adapt to changing demands while reducing costs. By integrating microservices and APIs, we accelerate innovation, deploy new features faster, and enhance customer experiences, all while maintaining security and compliance.
To wrap up this interview, what’s the funniest bug you’ve encountered during the course of your career?
One of the funniest bugs I’ve encountered was related to a legacy system. The bank had a practice of copying an existing client contract when creating a new one. However, while the new contract values were entered correctly, the accounting system continued using the old contract’s values. This led to significant discrepancies, and debugging it was extremely difficult as the issue was not easily traceable. It took quite some time to analyze and pinpoint the root cause. Looking back, the issue was both frustrating and amusing, highlighting the complexities of legacy banking systems.
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