Closing reflection
Core selection is not a procurement event. It is a long-term strategic decision that will shape your ability to operate efficiently, innovate continuously, manage risk intelligently and deliver customer experiences at the speed the market demands.
As such, before buying a core, it is important for an institution to assess its sources of competitive advantage, its key strategic pillars and the technology capabilities it will need before embarking on the selection process.
Central to this is a robust business case. This is not a document to be written once and put in a drawer, but a living plan that should guide decision-making throughout the programme and beyond. It must capture the full picture: costs, revenues, risks, and strategic benefits.
When evaluating platforms, it is equally important to understand what a 4th-generation core is and what it is not. It is cloud-native, composable, API-first, and extensible. It is not a legacy core that has simply been re-platformed, nor is it defined by the number of features it contains.
Its strategic role is to act as the locus of an ecosystem of applications, the record-keeping platform serving up real-time updates and events to enable fast decisioning, best-in-class risk management and fast innovation – all in the pursuit of customer excellence.
A well-designed POC is a great way to separate the wheat from the chaff, to discern the truly modern core from the camouflaged legacy core, as well as a great springboard into production.
Against a backdrop of accelerating change, the cost of standing still is rising rapidly. 2026 marks a defining moment for core platform decisions, when the cost of deferring action will outweigh the cost of change.
Part 2 of this series explores how the risks and timelines traditionally associated with core migration are evolving. The path from platform selection to production, whether through transformation or greenfield build, is becoming faster and more controlled than many institutions assume.
It’s time to get moving. It is time for the rubber to hit the road, and the excuses for standing still are disappearing fast.
“There’s no reason not to start. It doesn’t have to be a five-year big bang programme. You can begin with green products and build from there.”
About 10x
10x Banking (10x) is a cloud-native core banking platform built for financial institutions transforming to next-generation, 2040-ready technology. Whether migrating from monolithic, brownfield estates, pivoting from neo legacy or launching entirely new greenfield propositions, 10x has been proven through transformational deployments including Chase, Old Mutual and Westpac.
The platform offers a fast, cost-effective and de-risked path to full modernization and enables banks to scale without compromise – powering continuous, future-ready innovation. With its API-first architecture, financial institutions can launch new products, streamline operations, harness real-time data and integrate seamlessly across their technology ecosystems.
Founded in 2016 by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, and engineered by technologists, 10x has continuously championed banking technology that promotes inclusion and equality. 10x is a B Corp certified company headquartered in London, with presence in Sydney, and backed by leading global investors including BlackRock and J.P. Morgan.