Payments-as-a-service provider Volante Technologies says that all banks in the UK are keen to modernise, with the majority planning to spend big on upgrades in the near future, in a new report.
In the fifth edition of its annual research report, The Big Survey 2025: Modernising Payments, Volante reveals that 100 per cent of UK banks plan to implement a new payments solution, replacing one or more systems, while 65 per cent plan to do so within six months.
In fact, 21 per cent of UK banks appear to have plans to implement a new payments solution within one to three weeks of Volante’s survey.
Volante says that, while it found that UK banks are not only keen to modernise, they are also prepared to spend big to future-proof their payments infrastructure. On average, UK banks are planning to allocate a budget of nearly $1.25million to payments modernisation over the next year.
But what is driving this change? Volante says that 27 per cent of banks say that cost efficiency and operational resilience are the external factors driving modernisation the most, followed by harnessing ISO 20022 data potential, and competitive pressure from fintechs and neobanks.
Despite significant advances in fintech and banking technology, almost one-third of UK banks (31 per cent) rely on legacy technology for their payments services, either relying on core banking to provide payments or using a combination of internally built and/or vendor solutions that are five or more years old.
The biggest concern for UK banks in modernising payments is choosing the right vendors and tech partners (32 per cent), followed by concerns around internal skills and expertise to manage the transition.
Staying competitive
The survey also revealed that although SEPA Instant Payments is not a core requirement for UK banks, one in seven are currently offering this service, and a further quarter say they are close to doing so.
Additionally, UK banks are curious about cloud adoption for payments modernisation but are yet to fully embrace it. Forty-three per cent of UK banks say they are exploring cloud options for modernisation, but remain mainly on-premises.
“The fifth edition of The Big Survey shows banks recognise that modernising payments is crucial to survival in the evolving payments landscape,” explained Vijay Oddiraju, co-founder and CEO at Volante Technologies. “It’s not only market competition and changing customer expectations that are impressing this urgency upon them: 2025 is a pivotal year for regulatory deadlines regarding legislation such as SEPA Instant Payments and SWIFT ISO 20022. UK banks also recognise that payments modernisation is their path to greater profits through increased cost efficiency and operational resilience.”
“The fact that UK banks are preparing to spend, on average, nearly $1.25million on payments modernisation shows that they understand how important it is to adapt to industry shifts. But the size of such modernisation budgets means banks are, understandably, cautious about their selection of vendors and tech partnerships. For banks, the right partners are ones who will help them modernise their payments while lowering risk, improving ROI, and helping them onboard new clients quickly.”
