The Power of Orchestration and Digital Ledger Platforms: How UK Banks can offer payment and fintechs at speed

As the financial sector rapidly evolves, traditional UK banks face mounting pressure to provide new payment options, digital experiences, and seamless integration with emerging fintech services. However, legacy core banking systems often make this transition slow and difficult. So, the question is: how can they modernise their infrastructure without the disruption and risk of replacing their core systems?

The Challenge: Legacy Cores and the Innovation Gap

Most UK banks operate on legacy core banking platforms, often running on mainframes that are decades old. These systems are robust but inflexible. When it comes to adding new payments functionalities or launching digital products, they pose significant hurdles:

This innovation gap is particularly acute as customers demand real-time payments, embedded finance, digital assets and superior experience.

The Role of Orchestration and Digital Ledger Platforms

Traditional core banking systems, often running on mainframes, have provided dependable service for decades. Yet, they are not built to incorporate the rapid pace of change in today’s payments ecosystem. Integrating new payment methods (such as real-time payments, “buy now, pay later” solutions, and digital wallets) can be slow, expensive, and complex.

Orchestration and digital ledger platforms offer a pragmatic solution. Rather than requiring a full-scale core replacement, banks can adopt an accelerated approach with the following features:

Benefits for Banks

Bridging the Innovation Gap

The gap between what legacy cores can deliver and what customers expect is widening. Orchestration and digital ledger platforms bridge this gap by enabling banks to:

Why Now?

The financial services landscape is evolving rapidly. Regulatory changes, customer expectations, and competitive pressures demand greater agility. Banks that embrace Orchestration and Digital Ledger Platforms can position themselves as leaders in innovation, offering customers the latest payment options and digital services without the risk and cost of a full core replacement.

A Practical Example: DXC’s CoreIgnite

CoreIgnite is a high-performance orchestration and digital ledger platform designed to work alongside existing core systems (on prem or cloud based) and enables:

Conclusion

The future of payments for UK Banks lies in embracing orchestration and digital ledger platforms. These solutions act as payment hubs and simplify integration, offering a pragmatic path to modernisation. Banks that invest in flexible, scalable infrastructure will be best positioned to deliver the services their members expect while safeguarding agility and operational stability.

Financial Services Programme activities

The techUK Financial Services programme connects tech firms, the FS industry, and regulators to ensure innovation and technology can be fully embraced. Through market engagement activities and events, we help to empower decision makers and aid collaboration.