The AWS Future of Finance eBook

From Mainframes to Microservices: Cloud Migration Ushers In New Era for Financial Services

January 2025

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the financial services industry, ushering in a new era of innovation, efficiency, and customer-centric solutions. This report explores how major players like AWS, J.P. Morgan Payments, FIS and Plaid are leveraging cloud technology to transform payments, open banking, treasury management and responsible innovation in the digital age.

Get Unlimited Access
Complete the form below for free, unlimited access to all our Data Studies, Trackers, and MonitorEdge reports.

Thank you for registering. Please confirm your email to view all our Trackers.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    Welcome to the new era of banking, where legacy systems are being shattered and rebuilt from the ground up. This isn’t your grandfather’s tech upgrade; it’s a $1 trillion transformation that’s turning staid financial institutions into nimble tech powerhouses.

    J.P. Morgan Payments, the 150-year-old bank’s payments division, is deploying artificial intelligence (AI) for several use cases, including fraud detection, operational efficiency and customer service improvement. Meanwhile, AWS and Plaid are architecting a future where opening a bank account takes seconds, not days, and your money moves at the speed of thought.

    Here’s the kicker: This revolution isn’t just about faster transactions or prettier apps. It’s about reimagining what banking can be. Imagine global data lakes where financial institutions collaborate without compromising security, or treasury management systems that predict cash flow months in advance with accuracy.

    The stakes? Nothing short of the future of money. As Laurent Domb of AWS puts it: “Today’s customers expect a 24/7, always-on service,” Domb said. “To meet these expectations, financial institutions must not only understand the critical components of their business but also continuously practice and refine their resilience strategies. By doing so, they can ensure they are prepared to handle whatever challenges the future may bring.”

    Amidst this frenzy of innovation, a sobering reality emerges. This isn’t a simple flip of a switch. Banks are navigating a maze of regulations, security concerns, and the task of modernizing systems that have been running since before the internet.

    In this eBook, we pull back the curtain on banking’s cloud revolution. From the boardrooms of Wall Street to server farms powering our financial future, we’ll show you why this transformation matters — and how it’s about to change your relationship with money forever.

    The future of finance is in the cloud, and it’s arriving faster than you think.

    AWS and J.P. Morgan Payments Weigh In on the Cloud’s Role in Payments Modernization

    J.P. Morgan Payments’ cloud transformation signals a seismic shift in how financial powerhouses are approaching infrastructure modernization. Gone are the days when cloud migration was simply about cost savings and scalability. Today’s banking giants are leveraging cloud technology to completely reimagine their payment ecosystems.

    “We have the unique opportunity to reinvent banking infrastructure and build it new — as if we started from scratch,” says Michael Lozanoff, managing director and global head of merchant services for J.P. Morgan Payments. This fresh-slate mentality represents a dramatic departure from the incremental improvements that have characterized banking technology for decades.

    The numbers tell the story: Between 83% and 91% of banks now operate in the cloud. But what’s particularly interesting is how they’re using it. Rather than simply lifting and shifting existing systems, forward-thinking institutions are breaking down monolithic architectures into microservices that can be deployed independently and scaled on demand.

    Mark Smith, AWS head of payments, points to a fundamental shift in how FIs are approaching cloud adoption. “More and more of our customers are working backwards from their customers and building in a microservices architecture in an uncoupled or loosely coupled way,” he explains. This approach allows banks to offer services à la carte, moving away from the rigid, all-or-nothing platforms of the past.

    Why Big Banks Are Finally Breaking Up With Their Legacy Systems

    When J.P. Morgan Payments went to AWS, they weren’t just shopping for servers — they were buying freedom. Freedom for their engineers to innovate rather than maintain infrastructure. Freedom to rapidly deploy new solutions. And freedom to reimagine what banking could look like in the cloud era.

    This transformation goes well beyond simple infrastructure migration. The business is leveraging AWS’ cloud capabilities to revolutionize data handling, particularly in fraud prevention and customer experience. AI-driven tools aren’t just catching bad actors; they’re actively evolving, suggesting improvements to their own detection algorithms in real time.

    “Previously, payments teams focused on bulk money movement. Now, the leaders are those offering value-added services that reduce fraud, lower costs, and support global expansion,” says Lozanoff, highlighting how the role of payments teams has evolved from transaction processors to innovation drivers.

    Perhaps the most revolutionary development on the horizon is the concept of global data lakes — shared pools of information that enable unprecedented collaboration without physically moving sensitive data. This could be the holy grail of financial services: reducing costs while strengthening security and compliance.

    The journey hasn’t been smooth sailing. Banks face a complex maze of regulatory requirements and security concerns while modernizing their infrastructure. But the benefits — from enhanced scalability to improved efficiency — are proving irresistible.

    As financial services become increasingly embedded in client software, cloud infrastructure is no longer optional — it’s essential. The future promises even more automation, eliminating manual processes and freeing up resources for innovation.

    This isn’t just a tech upgrade; it’s a fundamental reimagining of banking for the digital age. By breaking down legacy systems into flexible, cloud-native components, J.P. Morgan Payments isn’t just changing how payments work — they’re rewriting the rules of financial services entirely.

    AWS and Plaid Advance the Business Case for Open Banking and Pay by Bank

    A seismic shift is coming to American banking, and AWS and Plaid are positioning themselves at the epicenter. With the CFPB’s Rule 1033 now in play, the financial sector is poised for what could be the biggest transformation in how Americans manage their money since the advent of mobile banking.

    At the heart of this revolution is “pay by bank” technology — a solution finally ready for prime time. “The user experience is what’s really changing,” says Plaid’s Head of Payments Brian Dammeir. The proof is in the numbers. Plaid’s digital authentication system has already cut new service sign-up times by a stunning 90%, eliminating the friction plaguing bank-based payments.

    But technology alone won’t drive adoption. AWS’ Paul Chang believes the key lies in incentives, particularly for younger consumers. “Instant cash back or merchant-driven rewards can encourage consumers to try out pay-by-bank solutions,” he notes, suggesting these could rival traditional credit card perks.

    The infrastructure behind this transformation is equally impressive. AWS is rolling out centralized transaction data lakes that handle real-time payments while maintaining bank-grade security. Plaid focuses on upgrading banking systems to meet the demands of instantaneous transfers.

    For merchants, the value proposition is clear: faster settlement times and lower processing costs. “For merchants who wait for funds before shipping goods, instant settlement is essential,” Dammeir explains.

    The challenge now isn’t technological — it’s psychological. Success hinges on maintaining the robust fraud protections consumers expect from traditional payment methods. However, with major players like AWS and Plaid leading the charge and regulatory support finally in place, open banking’s moment in America appears to have arrived. The only question is: How quickly will consumers embrace this new financial frontier?

    Why Open Banking’s Big Moment Has Finally Arrived in America

    The CFPB’s Rule 1033 adds regulatory momentum to these technological advances, though it has sparked debate within the industry. While some see it as a catalyst for innovation, others, including the Bank Policy Institute, raise concerns about data security. The Defense Credit Union Council has highlighted potential legal risks from third-party data handling.

    Despite these challenges, both AWS and Plaid remain optimistic about open banking’s future in the U.S. They’re already seeing success in specific use cases, particularly within FinTech platforms like Venmo and cryptocurrency wallets. The next frontier? Expanding to everyday transactions like bill payments and eCommerce purchases.

    “The banks that see this as an opportunity rather than a compliance obligation will be the ones to succeed,” Dammeir predicts. As FIs race to upgrade their systems ahead of Rule 1033’s implementation, the winners will likely be those who embrace the change rather than resist it.

    Panel: AWS and FIS Debate Treasury Management’s Digital Makeover With Cloud-Based Payments

    The corporate treasury world is getting a long-overdue digital makeover, and it couldn’t come at a better time. As companies navigate post-pandemic markets, AWS and FIS are teaming up to solve one of the most persistent pain points in institutional payments: the maddening fragmentation of treasury management.

    “If there’s a failure in the payment process because of incorrect information or bad data, there are instances where corporates have to go through manual processes to figure out why the payment failed,” explains Nilesh Dusane, AWS global head of institutional payments. These failures aren’t just annoying — they’re expensive. They create cash flow blind spots that can wreak havoc on a company’s bottom line.

    Enter the new era of cloud-based treasury platforms. FIS General Manager of Enterprise Payments Rijuta Jain reveals that their partnership with AWS is fundamentally reimagining what a payments hub can be. Unlike previous attempts at creating centralized payment systems, this new generation of cloud-native tools can scale instantly to process mind-boggling transaction volumes — think 2 million direct debit files in under an hour, with a capacity to spare.

    This matters because today’s corporations are increasingly operating like platforms themselves. Take the auto industry: “A few years ago, it was impossible to buy a car online. Now a vehicle can be browsed for, bought and delivered to one’s driveway with a few clicks of a button,” Dusane notes. This digital transformation demands treasury solutions that can keep pace.

    How Cloud Tech Is Finally Fixing Corporate Treasury’s Biggest Headache

    The complexities of international payments have long been a headache for corporate treasurers. AWS and FIS are changing that with a groundbreaking collaboration bringing treasury management into the cloud era.

    At the heart of their innovation is ISO 20022 messaging standardization, effectively creating a universal language for payments across borders and payment types. This seemingly technical achievement eliminates one of the biggest pain points in international payments: the need for multiple system connections and manual reformatting.

    But the real game-changer is their AI implementation. The system doesn’t just move money — it predicts payment completion times, optimizes routes, and spots fraud in real time. Most impressively, it’s extending cash flow forecasting from weeks to months, giving treasurers unprecedented visibility into their liquidity position.

    “We work with a technology platform that consolidates data across multiple banks, across multiple corporates to be able to alert us in real time if there is a red flag,” explains FIS’ Jain. This level of monitoring was economically unfeasible before cloud computing made processing vast amounts of data accessible.

    For corporations, particularly those expanding internationally, the value proposition is clear. Instead of building payment expertise in-house or navigating complex banking relationships in each new market, they can roll out operations through a single interface. As AWS’ Dusane puts it, “All you have to decide as a corporate is, ‘I want to go live with my business in a particular country.’”

    The result is a treasury management system that’s cloud-native, AI-powered, and surprisingly user-friendly. For companies tired of juggling multiple payment systems and struggling with cash flow visibility, AWS and FIS are offering a glimpse of a future where global payments are as simple as local ones.

    Game Day Every Day: How AWS Prepares for the Unexpected

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) is championing a unique approach to operational resilience in the financial sector, centered on the concept of “practicing failure.”

    Laurent Domb, chief technologist for worldwide public sector financial services at AWS, said proactive disruption testing is important to ensure readiness for unforeseen events.

    At the core of AWS’ strategy is the cultivation of a culture of continuous resilience. Financial institutions are advised to prioritize understanding critical user journeys, establishing clear service-level objectives, and defining impact tolerance levels. This approach involves a shift from traditional disaster recovery exercises to fault-induced disaster recovery through controlled chaos engineering, which aims to replicate real-world conditions as closely as possible.

    Although chaos engineering and fault injection sound ominous, they are essential tools in AWS’ resilience arsenal. These techniques involve purposefully injecting faults into systems to uncover hidden vulnerabilities and manage bottlenecks in distributed systems. By replaying real-world disruptions, companies can verify their systems’ true resilience. AWS supports this transformation with specialized programs, including incident tabletop exercises, well-architected reviews, threat modeling and operational readiness reviews.

    Resilience Culture

    Creating an environment of psychological safety is another aspect of AWS’ resilience culture. Fostering an atmosphere where teams can openly discuss mistakes without fear of retribution is important, Domb said. The approach not only enhances operational resilience but also nurtures a learning culture capable of adapting to an ever-evolving threat landscape.

    AWS has integrated artificial intelligence and machine learning into its suite of services to further enhance operational resilience. Amazon GuardDuty uses ML models for continuous threat detection, while AWS Firewall employs ML techniques to detect and block malicious network traffic in real time. Services like AWS Security Hub, Resilience Hub and Amazon Inspector help organizations prioritize security and resilience findings, allowing them to focus on the most critical risks.

    About


    AWS for Financial Services is a pioneer at the intersection of financial services and technology, enabling our customers to optimize operations and push the boundaries of innovation with the broadest set of services and partner solutions — all while maintaining security, compliance, and resilience at scale. Tens of thousands of financial services firms around the world, from the fastest-growing Fintechs to systemically important financial institutions, are redefining their future on AWS.
    To learn more visit: https://aws.amazon.com/financial-services/

    PYMNTS INTELLIGENCE

    PYMNTS is where the best minds and the best content meet on the web to learn about “What’s Next” in payments and commerce. Our interactive platform is reinventing the way in which companies in payments share relevant information about the initiatives that shape the future of this dynamic sector and make news. Our data and analytics team includes economists, data scientists and industry analysts who work with companies to measure and quantify the innovation that is at the cutting edge of this new world.


    We are interested in your feedback on this report. If you have questions or comments, or if you would like to subscribe to this report, please email us at feedback@pymnts.com.

    Disclaimer

    The Future of Finance Report may be updated periodically. While reasonable efforts are made to keep the content accurate and up to date, PYMNTS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, ADEQUACY, OR RELIABILITY OF OR THE USE OF OR RESULTS THAT MAY BE GENERATED FROM THE USE OF THE INFORMATION OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND ON AN “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE CONTENT IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. PYMNTS SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR ANY INTERRUPTIONS IN THE CONTENT THAT IS PROVIDED AND DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THE CONTENT, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT AND TITLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, AND, IN SUCH CASES, THE STATED EX CLUSIONS DO NOT APPLY. PYMNTS RESERVES THE RIGHT AND SHOULD NOT BE LIABLE SHOULD IT EXERCISE ITS RIGHT TO MODIFY, INTERRUPT, OR DISCONTINUE THE AVAILABILITY OF THE CONTENT OR ANY COMPONENT OF IT WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE.
    PYMNTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, AND, IN PARTICULAR, SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAM AGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF REVENUE, OR LOSS OF USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE CONTENT, WHETHER SUCH DAMAGES ARISE IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, UNDER STATUTE, IN EQUITY, AT LAW, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF PYMNTS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
    SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW FOR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, AND IN SUCH CASES SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS DO NOT APPLY. THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS ARE PROVIDED BY PYMNTS AND ITS PARENTS, AFFILIATED AND RELATED COMPANIES, CONTRACTORS, AND SPONSORS, AND EACH OF ITS RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, CONTENT COMPONENT PROVIDERS, LICENSORS, AND ADVISERS.
    Components of the content original to and the compilation produced by PYMNTS is the property of PYMNTS and cannot be reproduced without its prior written permission.