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Banks in France and Benelux face pressure to fund technology upkeep, regulatory work and customer improvements at the same time. The strategic case for action is not that legacy technology alone explains high operating costs; it is that banks should not make customer-facing value wait for a long core-modernization program. An “apex” experience—where a bank coordinates a customer’s intent, context and useful support—can be developed alongside that work, provided its benefits are tested rather than assumed.
What the spending figures do—and do not—show
Several different measures are relevant to the investment debate, and they should not be treated as interchangeable:
- IT run spending is the cost of operating and maintaining technology. The source article reports that Accenture’s 2026 Banking Trends put nearly 70% of bank IT spending toward maintaining existing systems and meeting regulatory demands. This is a global figure as relayed by the article; it does not provide a France- or Benelux-specific split.
- Technology cost growth is also reported by the article from Accenture: banking technology costs rose about four times faster than banking revenue over 15 years, while software costs grew about 8% annually since 2017. These are attributed figures, not independently verified here.
- Total operating efficiency is often discussed through the cost-to-income ratio. It is not a measure of IT spending, nor does a high ratio establish that older technology caused it.
The article points to staffing, branch networks, anti-money-laundering work and the rate cycle as other influences on costs. Its figures therefore support a case for examining technology and operating constraints, not a claim that replacing a core system will by itself fix efficiency.
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Where France and Benelux stand
The article gives approximate readings from an EBA chart dated March 2026. The country-level underlying table was not retrieved for this account, so these values and the France ranking should be treated as article-reported estimates rather than a verified country comparison.
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| Market | Approximate cost-to-income ratio | Context reported in the article |
|---|---|---|
| France | 65% | Highest of the three markets discussed; the article points to large banking groups and dense branch and staff costs. |
| Belgium | 58% | The article describes a concentrated market and price pressure. |
| Netherlands | 53% | Described as around the EU average, with digital channels identified as a possible pilot advantage. |
| Nordic banks | 39%–48% | Comparator range reported in the article. |
The article says France ranked third-highest among 30 EU/EEA countries, but that ranking likewise awaits confirmation from the EBA dashboard data annex. Ratios are efficiency indicators, not causal diagnoses of technology architecture.
More recent aggregate context is available: the EBA’s Q2 2026 dashboard announcement, published September 25, 2026, reports the EU/EEA cost-to-income ratio fell year on year from 52.5% to 51.5%. That aggregate does not validate the article’s country estimates or its separate approximate comparison of income and costs, which says EU bank income rose about 40% from 2021 while costs rose about 22%.
Why a long core program need not be the customer roadmap
Core modernization can be essential, but making all new customer value contingent on its completion creates a strategic bottleneck. The article’s central distinction is between foundational work—technology operations, resilience and regulatory obligations—and customer-facing improvements that can be designed and tested without waiting for every core component to change. As Lawrence puts it, “The trap is narrower: making customer value depend on finishing the core programme.”
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This is a strategic argument, not evidence that every customer feature can be detached from a bank’s core. Each proposed service still needs appropriate data access, security, reliability, compliance and integration. The practical question is whether a defined customer need can be addressed safely through available channels and systems while foundational modernization continues.
Regulatory work competes for capacity
DORA
The Digital Operational Resilience Act has applied since January 17, 2025. It addresses ICT risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing and oversight of third-party providers. The EBA’s June 2026 reporting independently describes DORA requirements as in application since January 2025. Banks should check the regulation and supervisory materials for the obligations that apply to their particular entity and service arrangements.
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PSD3, the Payment Services Regulation and AMLA
The article reports that PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation were agreed in final form in April 2026. It gives the PSR’s possible entry into force in the second half of 2026 and general application around the first half of 2028 as planning assumptions, and says AMLA is expected to take on direct supervision of the largest risk-exposed entities from 2028. Those dates and applicability details should not be treated as definitive here: confirm them against the final legal texts and official implementation materials. The article also points to stricter API performance expectations and customer permission dashboards as areas banks may need to address.
These obligations absorb both investment and operational attention. They help explain why a bank may have limited capacity for discretionary change, but they do not establish that customer value must wait until a full modernization program ends.
Customer value beyond basic banking utility
The article uses Bain’s B2C Elements of Value framework, described by Almquist, Senior and Bloch in Harvard Business Review in 2016. It groups 30 elements into four tiers: functional, emotional, life-changing and social impact. The framework is a way to think about what customers value; it is not proof that any one bank feature will produce a particular outcome.
As reported by the article, Bain’s 2018 analysis found that companies strong on four or more elements had more than twice the Net Promoter Score of companies strong on one, and more than five times the score of companies strong on none. The article also says Bain identified quality, saves time, reduces anxiety, simplifies and heirloom as the five elements with the most impact on bank NPS. These are attributed associations, not evidence that adding elements causes NPS to rise. Two of the five banking elements—reduces anxiety and heirloom—sit above the functional tier in the framework.
For a bank, the strategic implication is to ask whether it can help with an outcome customers care about, not just complete a transaction. “Apex” describes the customer-facing point at which intent, context and useful value are coordinated. It is an organizing idea, not a measured product category or guaranteed business result.
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What AI-enabled personal finance might make possible
The article proposes that an AI agent with a customer’s consented financial information could offer tailored help with affordability, goal planning and a greater sense of control. For instance, “At this rate you can buy a home in 44 months” is an illustrative example, not a validated forecast or cited statistic.
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The article treats the potential effects as hypotheses, not established findings for AI agents. It remains unproven whether personalized support reduces anxiety, whether any reduction changes saving, borrowing or financial buffers over six to twelve months, and whether resulting behavior improves retention or share of wallet. Banks should measure those outcomes rather than assume them.
A cautious pilot strategy
The article recommends considering the Netherlands first, then a progressive Belgian franchise, with France as a harder initial context because of its higher reported cost-to-income ratio and complex group structures. It argues that clean digital channels could make the Netherlands useful for a pilot. This is the author’s strategic recommendation, not a demonstrated market ranking or proven pilot outcome.
A defensible pilot would start with a narrow customer problem and explicit evidence thresholds:
- Choose a customer outcome. Define what support is intended to improve, such as planning for a purchase or understanding affordability.
- Establish consent and data boundaries. Specify which financial information is used, what the customer authorizes and how the service responds when data are incomplete.
- Set safety and quality measures. Evaluate accuracy, explanation, uncertainty handling and whether customers understand the guidance.
- Measure behavior and experience separately. Track customer-reported anxiety or confidence distinctly from observed saving, debt or buffer changes; do not treat one as proof of the other.
- Assess business effects only after evidence accumulates. Retention and share-of-wallet changes are outcomes to test, not assumptions to attach to deployment.
Market choice can make execution easier or harder, but should not substitute for these tests. Nor should a favorable cost-to-income ratio be read as evidence that a market will produce better customer outcomes.
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