There is a phrase used by many people that criticises banks for sticking “lipstick on a pig”. What they mean by this is that you can make front-end systems look pretty, but if the back-end systems are a mess then they will still be found wanting. A pretty pig is still a pig. However, sorting out those back-end systems is incredibly difficult and risky, so why do it?
There was a headline that caught my eye about this when two Australian banks were trying to merge. The headline screamed ‘Australia's two most technologically challenged banks could merge’, and the article discussed the tech headaches of Suncorp and Bank of Queensland (BOQ). Both banks have been trying to change their core systems over the past few years – and have failed.
