INDUSTRY INSIGHT interactions across them. Platforms such as Liferay’ s Digital Experience Platform( DXP) are designed to address exactly this need, enabling institutions to unify content, CRM and core banking workflows into a single digital layer. With support for localisation, omnichannel delivery and secure cloud-native deployment, they allow banks to build client and customer portals that are as personalised as they are compliant, without losing architectural control. The result – faster go-to-market, stronger customer loyalty and operational efficiency at scale.
Real-world results
A real-world example of this approach in action comes from Carrefour Financial Solutions, part of the global Carrefour Group. Facing increasing demand for agility, scale and stability in its customer-facing portal, the institution migrated to a cloud-based experience layer using Liferay’ s PaaS solution. The results were significant: two group portals were successfully migrated in just one week, deployment times were reduced from four hours to under 10 minutes and consulting times dropped by 96 %. The portal now serves as a hub for both customers and prospects, integrating critical services and content, while also autoscaling to handle peak traffic. This shift gave Carrefour Financial Solutions operational flexibility, faster time-to-market and security required to stay competitive in a fast-changing financial services environment.
CXOs are no longer asking whether to transform, but how to do so effectively across lines of business. Some are already paving the way. In wealth management, personalised digital advisory tools are adapting to users’ life stages and financial goals. In SME and commercial banking, client portals are streamlining complex workflows such as onboarding, document handling and credit approvals. And in retail banking, hyperpersonalised digital interfaces are beginning to respond not just to demographics, but to realtime behaviours, preferences and intent signals, reshaping how value is delivered across the customer lifecycle.
These use cases are not just technical upgrades; they are strategic imperatives. As interest rate cycles shift, customer expectations rise and competitive pressure intensifies, the ability to deliver a differentiated, trustworthy and responsive experience becomes a key driver of long-term loyalty and value creation. Crucially, this doesn’ t require banks to rip and replace what still works. A more strategic path lies in modernising the experience layer – layering in flexible, cloudenabled, AI-powered capabilities that extend and enhance existing systems.
This approach also aligns with the region’ s broader drive for economic localisation and sovereign technology adoption. In markets such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia( KSA) and the UAE, government directives and national digital strategies encourage adoption of platforms that are secure and scalable, but also adaptable to local regulatory, linguistic and cultural frameworks.
But competitive pressure is no longer limited to other banks. The rise of embedded finance, digital wallets and Big Tech’ s encroachment into payments and lending is compressing the time
banks have to reinvent digital engagement. As nontraditional players redefine customer expectation, traditional institutions must rethink their digital value proposition – or risk becoming invisible.
Here, the ability to deploy modular, open source aligned digital experience platforms gives banks a dual advantage: accelerating transformation while maintaining technological sovereignty.
Experience architecture as the new battleground
At its core, this shift is about reimagining what it means to be a bank in the digital era. Competitive advantage is no longer built on great rates or broad digital reach alone. The new battleground is experience – and it’ s being shaped by those who can bring together meaningful ways.
The institutions that lead will be those that build for adaptability, deploying technologies with purpose, solving real customer problems, with architecting experiences that evolve with the market. The good news? The tools – like composable DXPs, low-code platforms and AI engines – are finally catching up with the ambition. x www. intelligentcxo. com
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