The new banking boardroom agenda: Why the c-suite should be talking processes

The pace of change in banking is only accelerating. With customer expectations rising, operational pressure intensifying, and regulatory demands transforming, strategic action from the C-suite is essential to propel banks towards a more resilient, adaptive future where leaders in banking can achieve sustainable growth. As technology evolves and expectations shift, financial services are left in a state of constant catchup. It’s not a lack of vision that’s hindering progress in banking – it’s the tired, siloed infrastructure failing to support it. This fragmentation is a widespread barrier, with 74% of leaders reporting that disconnected systems prevent a real-time view of their processes.

Despite these shifts, 92% of Finance and Shared Services leaders now view AI as the primary opportunity to remain competitive with 85% aiming to transition into "agentic enterprises" within the next two to three years, according to the 2026 Celonis Process Optimization Report.

That’s why process improvement should be at the top of every banking boardroom agenda: it gives C-suite execs the power to adjust their transformation approach from static, singular efforts which can’t be scaled, to a cycle of continuous improvement.

• For a more detailed look at the biggest challenges facing the banking industry, download Process Intelligence for Banking: The Ultimate Guide.

The infinite potential of process improvement

Sporadic, piecemeal approaches to modernization – like adding a new tool to the stack, automating a standalone task, or bringing in a new hire – are expensive, temporary fixes that don’t address the underlying operational problems.

Process improvement goes beyond improving a single task within a workflow, or tackling an individual issue, holistically assessing workflows across systems, teams, and even suppliers. This eradicates the disconnect caused by siloes, and creates a shared purpose for optimization across each department, which not only factors in their interdependence, but also ensures that improvements are aligned to overall business strategy.

Process intelligence enables effective process improvement

Effective process improvement is only possible with proper process understanding: something which is often elusive for banks, thanks to siloed structures, patchwork efforts at modernization and a continued reliance on legacy systems. This is where process intelligence is so transformative. Process intelligence uses techniques like process mining to extract data from banking systems, apply AI, and augment with unique business context to create a living digital twin of banking operations.

This gives C-suite execs the visibility to understand how processes actually work, identify opportunities for improvement, and assess where AI solutions will generate the best ROI. With process intelligence, the C-suite has the mechanisms needed to facilitate cross-team collaboration, and monitor the impact of improvements in real time.

Trusted by 70% of the Top 10 banks in EMEA and North America, Celonis has helped:

• A global cooperative bank achieve $2.5M in cost savings by eliminating undesired activities.
• A German bank reduce waiting time in Time-to-Yes by 50%.
• An American bank’s quality assurance success rate improve by 40%.

How process improvement serves the c-suite

Let’s take a look at some specific use cases for process improvement in banking, and how – through process intelligence – this practice can be leveraged by different members of the C-suite, to drive impactful customer benefits.

Helping Chief Experience Officers and Chief Customer Officers meet rising customer expectations

The challenge
Today’s customers move through a digital-first world, and now expect (and demand) near-instant access to personalized products and services from their banks. If a mortgage application or account set up takes too long, customers will simply take their business elsewhere. The 2025 World Retail Banking Report from Capgemini Research Institute reveals that a huge 47% of applicants abandon the credit card application process midway due to a poor experience. So how can Chief Experience and Chief Customer Officers at traditional banks work to ensure the CX they deliver rivals the innovative, app-based experiences offered by their digitally-native counterparts?

The solution
With a process-led approach to optimization and the visibility granted by process intelligence, banks have access to the insights needed to deliver the modern experiences their customers demand. For instance, with the credit card application process they can:

• Reduce leakage: When the application funnel is closely monitored, banks can pinpoint precisely where customers are dropping out, and take steps to improve that segment of the customer journey.
• Accelerate decisions: By automating processes like data validation, document verification, credit scoring, and policy rules verification, banks can reduce errors and limit reassignment delays.
• Minimize delays: With granular visibility into onboarding and application processes, bottlenecks can be spotted and resolved in real time.
• Boost customer satisfaction: Through tools like the Celonis Credit Lifecycle Manager App, banks can streamline and automate the slowest steps in the credit lifecycle, directly reducing time-to-yes.

Helping Chief Operation Officers address the need for smarter banking operations

The challenge
Many banks operate on complex, fragmented tech stacks formed over years of mergers, siloed legacy systems, and one-off modernization efforts. The resulting patchwork makes innovation and the adoption of smarter banking challenging, which prevents banks responding quickly to market changes. On top of this, traditional banks often still rely on labour-intensive, manual processes that result in wasted resources and inefficiencies.

The solution

Process-led modernization efforts enable COOs to boost agility and bolster resilience by resolving inefficiencies at the process level – addressing the cause, rather than mitigating the symptoms. As an example of real-world benefits, banks can drive payment performance through monitoring SLA adherence. By monitoring settlement data, banks can detect the root cause of transactions settled beyond Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Helping Chief Compliance Officers and Chief Regulatory Officers tackle evolving threats and a shifting regulatory landscape

The challenge
Banks are facing a sophisticated and variable risk landscape. In addition to ongoing regulatory reform, fraud is rising rapidly, with reported losses in the US up 33% YoY in 2024. For Chief Compliance and Chief Regulatory Officers, navigating these evolving risks and the shifting compliance goalposts is almost impossible, thanks to outdated systems and siloed customer data. Yet failing to adapt exposes banks to considerable financial enforcement actions.

The solution
Through process intelligence, Risk and Compliance leaders have access to advanced analysis of granular process data across systems, so they can spot deviations and compliance gaps in real-time, before they escalate. Here are just a few of the ways process intelligence can be used to optimize compliance efforts and reduce risk:

• Reduce regulatory reporting breaches: With operational dashboards, banks have cross-system visibility, so they can identify opportunities to automate regulatory reporting, reduce SLA breaches, and identify patterns of recurring corrections.
• Improve KYC workflows: Process intelligence allows banks to streamline due diligence with steps like automated customer verification, and accelerate the onboarding process by minimizing customer outreach.
• Streamline dispute settlement: Cycle times can also be cut down, as cases requiring reassignment rework are reduced, and so are idle periods.

Process is the cornerstone of progress

In adopting process-led modernization, the C-suite will make progress towards every other priority on their agenda too. With the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform, C-suite execs are equipped with the visibility, control, and functionality needed to align transformation initiatives with banking strategy.

This ensures that every department – from CX to Risk – is always working towards and contributing to the wider business goals, all while successfully navigating the headwinds banks are facing today.