Modernizing Banking Tech Without Disruption FT. Mike Stawchansky, EVP, Chief Technology Officer, Finastra

Modernizing core banking systems is a high stakes challenge. Uptime, compliance, and customer trust leave little room for experimentation, yet the pressure to modernize and adopt cloud ready architectures keeps rising. In this TechDogs Discover Dialogues episode, Mike Stawchansky, EVP and CTO at Finastra, shares a practical approach to legacy modernization that prioritizes stability while still delivering progress.

Mike explains why modernization starts with measurement, why compliance must be built into the foundation, and why incremental modernization using the Strangler Fig approach is often the safest route for mission critical banking platforms. The conversation also offers a grounded view of AI in banking, including why AI should complement core systems rather than replace them, and why production automation still requires human checks and the four eyes principle.
 

In this episode, we cover:

 

• How to modernize legacy banking platforms without disruption by measuring what exists first

• Why non-functional requirements must be explicit before migration or re-architecture

• Compliance by design and how to make it difficult to do the wrong thing in production

• Why big bang rewrites are risky for core banking and why Strangler Fig works better

• Where to start modernization: user journey, adoption, and what actually improves customer outcomes

• The modernization mistake many teams repeat: delaying tech debt until it becomes urgent

• AI in mission critical banking: where it adds value, and why it cannot replace deterministic core systems

• AI governance: where to draw the line on automation and why humans must stay in the loop

• How global engineering teams stay aligned on reliability, delivery standards, and ownership

• Reliability culture: breaking the “throw it over the wall” model across engineering, DevOps, and support

• Leadership lessons for sustaining momentum during long transformation cycles

 

Key takeaways:

 

• Measure first

  Modernization should preserve or improve reliability, not reduce it.

• Modernize incrementally

  Strangler Fig reduces risk and builds trust through small wins.

• AI complements core systems

  Its probabilistic nature makes deterministic banking cores difficult to replace.

• Keep checks in production

  Treat AI like any engineer. Use validation and the four eyes principle.

• Communication is the scaling factor

  Clear, explicit communication and playback prevent misalignment in global teams.

 

About Mike Stawchansk

Mike Stawchansky is EVP and Chief Technology Officer at Finastra, where he leads technology strategy with a focus on product and infrastructure modernization and cloud transformations for mission critical financial services platforms. He brings deep experience across platform engineering, reliability, and large scale modernization, with a practical operating mindset focused on measurable baselines, shared accountability, and execution at scale.