Financial & Insurance

Large-Scale Banking Modernization & Digital Pivot

Our Client’s Backstory

Our client is a large Austrian financial institution serving over 2.5 million customers with a portfolio of retail, corporate, and investment products. Facing competition from emerging neobanks and digital-first challengers, the bank’s leadership recognized a critical need to modernize their legacy infrastructure. The objective was to evolve from a traditional, branch-centric organization into a flexible, tech-powered solution provider capable of delivering an omnichannel banking experience across Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

The Challenges

Modernizing a multi-decade legacy ecosystem required overcoming technical and cultural hurdles. Key challenges included:

Legacy Infrastructure Constraints: Decoupling modern financial services from a rigid, IBM mainframe-based core and dozens of fragmented legacy applications.
Neobank Competition: Engineering a user experience that matches the speed, agility, and intuition of digital-only challengers while maintaining institutional security.
Architectural Rigidity: Transitioning from a monolithic, slow-to-deploy structure to a scalable system that supports rapid feature iteration.
Cultural Transformation: Shifting a traditional banking culture toward an agile-driven organizational model to accelerate product delivery.

Solutions

Klika was engaged as a technical partner to architect and implement a next-generation banking ecosystem from the ground up. Our solution included:

Domain-Driven Microservices Architecture: Engineered an ecosystem of over 200 microservices using Java/Spring, orchestrated via Kubernetes for maximum scalability and resilience.
Mainframe Decoupling Strategy: Implemented a specialized integration layer that utilizes the legacy IBM mainframe solely as a business system utility, freeing the front-end platform for rapid innovation.
Omnichannel Product Engine: Developed a dual-layered domain model, creating specialized services for mobile onboarding and web-based loans alongside shared internal utilities for cross-channel consistency.
Agile Delivery Framework: Spearheaded the adoption of a "Spotify-style" agile model, supported by high-frequency CI/CD pipelines to enable weekly product releases.
SaaS Loan Ecosystem: Engineered specialized "Fast Loan" products integrated with major retail partners (e.g., Saturn, Mediamarkt) and various marketing automation tools.
High-Fidelity Mobile Experience: Developed native iOS and Android applications, providing a seamless, neobank-grade interface for 2.5 million users.

The Results

The transformation has redefined the bank’s operational efficiency and market competitiveness.

200+ Production Microservices: Successfully launched a high-availability microservice ecosystem that powers all modern banking functions.
Reduction in Operational Costs: Modernized architecture significantly lowered maintenance overhead and eliminated redundancies in software implementation.
Increased Release Velocity: Empowered dozens of autonomous squads to move from slow quarterly cycles to almost weekly product releases.
Neobank-Grade CX: Delivered a holistic, real-time customer journey that successfully rivals the most advanced digital-only banks in Europe.
Future-Proof Scalability: The cloud-native foundation now supports the bank’s long-term expansion goals with high technical reliability.