2025 marks a turning point for corporate and transaction banking. What used to be a steady, regulation-driven corner of financial services is now at the epicenter of strategic transformation.

As executives navigate the forces driving this transformation, CGI Voice of Our Clients research highlights their top trends and priorities.

Interviews with 117 business and technology executives reveal key insights related to:

  • Intensifying regulatory pressure: In previous years, compliance was a checkbox; now it’s a strategic differentiator.
  • Technology and digital acceleration: Digital transformation and cloud migration have climbed to the top of the executive agenda.
  • Widening talent gap: Executives are reimagining their workforce—from offshore models and retraining programs to dedicated IT recruitment arms.

In this video, we dive deeper into pressing issues for executives and learn how digitization is enabling them to embrace new opportunities.

At CGI, we help corporate and transaction banks digitally transform to achieve strategic business outcomes—from managing risks and compliance, to driving sustainable growth, to enhancing the customer experience.

Video transcript

Transformation is no longer an ambition; it’s a necessity

In corporate and transaction banking, everything is shifting fast. Political landscapes are volatile. Customers are demanding real-time digital experiences, and AI has become a priority.

The 117 corporate and transaction banking executives, we interviewed in our Voice of Our Clients research agree. Transformation is no longer an ambition; it’s a necessity.

The three things you really need to focus on: modernizing your legacy infrastructure, focusing on building capabilities, not just cutting costs, and making sure that you hold on to and really extend that institutional knowledge that you have as you look to grow your corporate transaction banking business.

The question isn't whether change is coming. It's whether corporate and transaction banks are agile enough to lead it.

Our Voice of Our Clients insights reveal a market under pressure, but also full of possibility.

Top trends include regulatory pressure, modernization and talent

Three key trends are shaping the industry:

  1. Regulatory pressure has intensified. Before compliance was a checkbox. Now it's a strategic differentiator. Over 60% of executives cite changing political, fiscal and regulatory environments as a top macro trend. Leaders aren't just responding to mandates like the European Union's Digital Operational Resilience Act. They're redesigning operating models to stay ahead of them.
  2. Modernization is no longer an IT initiative, it's a business imperative. Digital transformation and cloud migration have climbed to the top of the executive agenda. Over 70% of executives cite technology and digital acceleration as their top macro trend. While digital channels remain essential, the real shift is toward embedded AI automation and data infrastructure.
  3. To unlock new business models, the talent gap is widening, and it's no longer just about hiring coders. Corporate and transaction banking executives say the loss of institutional knowledge is becoming a risk. In response, they're re-imagining their workforce—from offshore models and retraining programs to dedicated IT recruitment strategies.

Leaders aren't asking how to keep up, they're asking how to get ahead. So, what's changed this year in terms of talent challenges is really the shift from focusing solely on acquiring new skills to also safeguarding and transferring embedded expertise. Now, that's because talent challenges extend beyond recruitment, making knowledge continuity essential to minimizing disruption and maintaining service quality as technology strategies evolve.

Why is this important? The loss of deep institutional knowledge, especially as experienced professionals approach retirement, is emerging as a significant concern. There's also a growing focus on capturing operational knowledge through automation and system documentation.

The talent that you have is different than what it might be in other sectors. It's experiential talent. It's talent that's been part of multiple business cycles.

And, capturing that knowledge, capturing that wisdom, and incorporating that back into your business is what's going to help you continue to grow—and grow sustainably and profitably—as you expand your corporate and transaction business.

Case in point: A Canadian bank reimagines its key commercial banking processes

Reflecting a growing trend to modernize inside out, a leading Canadian bank set out to reimagine key commercial banking processes, specifically commercial account opening and card onboarding.

In partnership with CGI, the bank launched cross-functional re-engineering pods that applied lean, agile and design thinking principles to eliminate inefficiencies and improve customer and employee experiences.

Micro pilots were used to test and refine solutions, minimizing risk while accelerating results.

The outcomes:

  • 50% reduction in cycle time;
  • Improved service quality; and
  • Aa strong foundation for ongoing digitization and automation.

Like many digital leaders, this bank is moving beyond incremental fixes, embedding agility into its operations and designing transformation with both people and performance in mind.

Investing in transformation as a business-wide strategy to drive growth

Digital leaders are gaining speed, visibility and resilience by treating transformation as a business-wide capability, not just an IT initiative. So, while operational efficiency remains a priority, there's a clear movement towards reinvestment, especially in areas that enable growth or reduce long-term risk.

But, rather than making across the board cuts, organizations are spending carefully—prioritizing initiatives that are mission-critical or directly support compliance and client experience.

This shift reflects a more balanced strategy, and while cost discipline remains essential, it's used to sharpen, not delay, transformation.

Firms that adopt this approach or these approaches will be able to bring new offerings to market more quickly, have a much better understanding of what their risks and opportunities are, and have more client-facing conversation to guide their business clients towards the outcomes that they're looking for.

Treating transformation as a strategic tool and not an operational task

Our Voice of Our Clients research reveals that corporate and transaction bank executives aren't waiting for clarity. They're creating it, treating transformation as a strategic tool and not an operational task. They're also asking more strategic questions, such as not how much can we cut, but rather: Where should we invest to grow securely and sustainably?

For those who are still running digital transformation as a side project, it's time to reframe.

The opportunity is clear.

Turn today's pressures into tomorrow's platform for growth.