The Vendor Sprawl Problem
Most banks and fintechs need at least five separate vendors just to operate. Five contracts, five APIs, five data models that don't talk to each other. It's not a technology problem — it's structural, and we've accepted it as normal for too long.
Most banks and fintechs need at least five separate vendors just to operate:
1. Identity verification 2. AML and compliance screening 3. Core banking system 4. Digital banking channels 5. Cross-border payments
That's five contracts. Five APIs. Five support teams. Five SLAs. Five data models that don't talk to each other.
And the customer? They're one person with one account — but their data lives in five different systems that have never shared a record.
So when the compliance team needs to reconcile a flagged transaction with a KYC document, they're copy-pasting between dashboards. When engineering wants to launch a new product, they're spending three months on integration before writing a single line of product code.
This isn't a technology problem. It's a structural one. And we've accepted it as normal for way too long.
How many vendors does your organization manage just to run basic banking operations?
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*Originally posted on LinkedIn, March 2026.*