Banks across the Asia Pacific are presently navigating a period of rapid change in the payment ecosystem.
Mobile wallets, digital commerce & real-time payments have become part of everyday financial activity.
The shift towards alternative payment methods is accelerating. This was mentioned in Accenture’s Banking Top Trends ’26 – The Era of Unconstrained Banking report. It estimates that up to USD 13 trillion in cross-border transaction value may move away from traditional banking channels within the next 4 years by ’30.
Similarly, cards continue to play a critical role in powering online transactions. This figure is besides digital wallets & international payments.
For many regional financial institutions, innovation tends to be constrained by legacy infrastructure.
Core systems, designed decades ago, still continue to remain central to daily operations. This may impede large-scale technology changes or even make the transformation task difficult.
So instead of replacing these old systems entirely, many banks are taking a more gradual path forward. Banks modernise their card management capabilities while maintaining their legacy platforms.
For many banks across the Asia-Pacific, the real challenge isn’t launching card products. Instead, it is managing them with increasingly complex payment ecosystems.
Banks may now need to support a far wider range of payment instruments besides customer journeys. This includes virtual cards, mobile wallet provisioning, multi-currency transactions & embedded financial services.
Legacy systems aren’t only limiting flexibility. It also consumes a significant share of resources.
According to Accenture’s Banking Top Trends 2026 report, close to 70% of IT budgets in many banks are spent sustaining existing support systems. This leaves limited capacity for innovation or new product development.
Likewise, the same report finds that 76% of financial institutions acknowledge that they still need to strengthen their capabilities in supporting more advanced digital currencies & smart money models.
Whilst transaction volumes increase with customer expectations shifting towards real-time, besides embedded financial services, such constraints make it increasingly challenging for banks to respond quickly to market demands.
In the meantime, Gartner’s 2026 CIO Technology Executive Survey suggests that legacy infrastructure may no longer be an operational inconvenience but instead a direct barrier.
Following the survey findings, 52% of CIOs shared that they are presently under pressure to reduce operational costs.
The same Gartner survey finds that CIOs who pursue clear financial outcomes from technology, such as AI, tend to be 25% more likely to excel.
Legacy payment systems remain one of the largest constraints on innovation for financial institutions. This is particularly so when banks attempt to introduce new digital services.
Gartner’s CIO & Technology Executive Survey also suggests that the launch of new products & services has become one of the most important strategic questions, along with the improvement of customer experience.
This often translates into several practical operational challenges for card-issuing teams.
Product launch cycles can be lengthy, as introducing a new card programme may require changes across multiple systems besides teams.
Legacy infrastructure also limits flexibility. It makes it difficult for banks to support newer capabilities.
Data visibility tends to be fragmented, with card transactions, customer information & risk controls managed across different platforms rather than through a unified view.
Likewise, heavily customised legacy environments may increase operational risks, as updates or system changes become more complex & challenging to implement without disrupting existing services.
These challenges tend to be most visible across fast-growing digital markets in Southeast Asia.
Digital commerce continues to expand whilst consumers depend more on mobile banking & wallets. Banks need a card infrastructure that may support new channels. That may need to be without creating additional operational complexity.
In the Asia Pacific, financial institutions & national networks may have experienced service disruptions. These may be linked to technology limitations, besides growing transaction volumes.
Digital banking & payment ecosystems continue to expand, & outages in card-issuing systems, payment gateways, or digital banking channels may quickly affect millions of customers.
OCBC Bank in Singapore is one such example, having experienced multiple service disruptions in both ’23 and ’24 that affected internet banking, mobile banking, and fund transfers.
