Banks will need to enhance resilience across capital, technology, and talent, as they confront potential new challenges in the short term. Longer term, banks should accelerate and amplify their transformation efforts across the enterprise.

Banks can institutionalize the lessons learned during the pandemic. These may include operating with agility, flattening hierarchies, speeding up decision-making, empowering employees, and introducing flexible workplaces and workforces. Future success may very well hinge on how well these lessons have been internalized and implemented.

COVID-19 not only accelerated digital adoption, but it has also been a litmus test for banks’ digital infrastructures. Institutions that made strategic investments in technology came out stronger, but laggards may still be able to leapfrog if they take swift action to accelerate tech modernization. Across the board, digital inertia has faded, and more banks are pursuing technology-driven transformation, especially to core systems.