A quick reset before we dive in
We have decided to change the format of News of the Week.
FIS Is Quietly Transferring Hundreds of Long-Tenured Employees to Cognizant — And May Not Tell Your Bank
Industry sources report that FIS is rebadging hundreds of employees with 10 to 25 years of institutional knowledge over to Cognizant. These are the people who know your specific configuration, your custom integrations, your undocumented workarounds. An internal employee petition was filed calling on FIS to pause and reassess, citing critical knowledge concentration loss and near-certain service disruption risk. Whether your bank will be notified of these changes is unclear. Do not assume it will be. If your bank runs FIS, ask your relationship manager three questions today: Who is servicing my account? Are they staying? What is our contract’s notification obligation for material service team changes?
Sources: Industry sources
HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and RBC Are Making AI a Core Leadership Priority — Not a Pilot
Three of the world’s largest financial institutions moved beyond AI experimentation this week. HSBC created the role of Chief AI Officer, making AI a formal C-suite mandate. JPMorgan Chase posted an Executive Director of Agentic AI Strategy, a leadership role with a budget and a mandate. Royal Bank of Canada is hiring to build AI directly into its core banking architecture. These are not press releases. These are organizational decisions. When the largest banks in the world are naming AI at the leadership level, the institutions still running pilot programs are already behind.
Sources: Lucidate
Two More Community Banks Select Jack Henry for Core Modernization
FM BANK and Quoin Financial Bank, both part of Independent Bancshares Inc., selected Jack Henry this week for core processing and digital banking modernization. Together they manage close to $1 billion in combined assets serving agricultural, small business, and commercial clients across Minnesota and South Dakota. Jack Henry continues to win in the community and regional bank space as legacy systems hit their replacement ceiling. The banks that feel the urgency first are the ones acting first.
Sources: Jack Henry / PR Newswire | IBS Intelligence
The OCC Just Removed the Rule That Forced Banks to Ask Hard Questions About Resilience
The OCC finalized a rule on March 31 to rescind its recovery planning guidelines for banks with at least $100 billion in assets. That requirement existed for a reason: it was a forcing function that made institutions honestly assess whether their systems could survive a stress event. The OCC’s Comptroller stated the guidelines “do little to improve banks’ ability to manage through stress.” That may be true. But the question your board should be asking is not whether you still have to comply. The question is whether your systems are genuinely resilient, or whether you were only resilient enough to pass the exam.
Sources: OCC.gov | American Banker
Don’t blink—the banking Singularity is accelerating.
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