Oct 21, 2026 · 43 min · 10 segments
Kris Kovacs sits down with Jody Bhagat, North American President of Engine by Starling, to discuss the next generation of banking technology. They explore the evolving digital banking landscape and…
Jody BhagatGuestKris KovacsHostCredit unions have historically created these kind of silos for data and functionality, right? There's core, there's digital, there's an LOS, maybe even a separate mortgage and credit card processing system.
important point, and perhaps one that we've just become accustomed to, which is I've either got kind of best-of-breed point solutions or I've got a legacy technology stack that is end-to-end, but in many ways has grown through acquisition.
And so what we found interesting is that 60% to 70% of the IT budgets may go to just maintaining the core systems, maintaining and enhancing the core systems, and creating connectivity with other systems.
And that means that there's typically less than 10% of your IT spend that's actually going to business innovation and value generation and distinctive member experiences.
And then secondly, the solutions aren't necessarily cohesive in terms of actually operating together to create synergy.
And then the other part of the market is also the new entrants, which are thin cores.
Now, they're very modern technology, some even built on smart contract capability.
And so to create value, you really need to stitch together all the pieces around the core to create a fully functioning operating bank.
And we position engine as really in the middle of those two, which is modern technology, but also a very coherent system.
And that coherent system is what allows for a differentiated product proposition on the front end, the ability to innovate much more rapidly and also create a high degree of operating efficiency.
Yeah, I think one of the things that's interesting to me is that it's a chicken or egg scenario a little bit, right? Did the technology stack problem that credit unions find themselves in today result because of a mindset about how these solutions should be put together, chasing these best of breed solutions? Or...
Did the mindset create the environment that we have today? How do you approach a discussion with a credit union around kind of rethinking this model of service delivery, of going cloud native? It seems like such an important point.
I will say that it's typically the more progressive credit unions that are, they're actually very comfortable leading and they want to be out in front in terms of growth metrics, member satisfaction, experience delivery.
And we believe there's strong appetite amongst those leaders to take a different path, a more ambitious path.
Credit unions have historically created these kind of silos for data and functionality, right? There's core, there's digital, there's an LOS, maybe even a separate mortgage and credit card processing system.
important point, and perhaps one that we've just become accustomed to, which is I've either got kind of best-of-breed point solutions or I've got a legacy technology stack that is end-to-end, but in many ways has grown through acquisition.
And so what we found interesting is that 60% to 70% of the IT budgets may go to just maintaining the core systems, maintaining and enhancing the core systems, and creating connectivity with other systems.
And that means that there's typically less than 10% of your IT spend that's actually going to business innovation and value generation and distinctive member experiences.
And then secondly, the solutions aren't necessarily cohesive in terms of actually operating together to create synergy.
And then the other part of the market is also the new entrants, which are thin cores.
Now, they're very modern technology, some even built on smart contract capability.
And so to create value, you really need to stitch together all the pieces around the core to create a fully functioning operating bank.
And we position engine as really in the middle of those two, which is modern technology, but also a very coherent system.
And that coherent system is what allows for a differentiated product proposition on the front end, the ability to innovate much more rapidly and also create a high degree of operating efficiency.
Yeah, I think one of the things that's interesting to me is that it's a chicken or egg scenario a little bit, right? Did the technology stack problem that credit unions find themselves in today result because of a mindset about how these solutions should be put together, chasing these best of breed solutions? Or...
Did the mindset create the environment that we have today? How do you approach a discussion with a credit union around kind of rethinking this model of service delivery, of going cloud native? It seems like such an important point.
I will say that it's typically the more progressive credit unions that are, they're actually very comfortable leading and they want to be out in front in terms of growth metrics, member satisfaction, experience delivery.
And we believe there's strong appetite amongst those leaders to take a different path, a more ambitious path.
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