Corporate and investment banks (CIBs) are facing intense competition from non‑bank financial institutions.
As client expectations rise and technology initiatives fail to deliver the anticipated benefits, 85% of banks’ corporate clients plan to engage with non-bank financial institutions in the next year, according to the Capgemini Research Institute’s inaugural World Corporate and Investment Banking Report 2026.
The research found banks are looking to bolster their AI expertise, but many are facing a skills shortage, with 40% investing in external hires. Additionally, just over half of CIB executives have bet on tokenised products to improve performance.
The findings come as Capgemini analysis shows CIB revenue growth is decelerating, with a forecasted 5.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years – down from 6.5% between 2022 and 2024.
Olivier Garcia, global head of CIB at Capgemini Invent, outlined three key areas where CIBs were being threatened: corporate lending, trading and corporate treasury services.
How are CIBs trying to innovate?
Despite falling behind in the digital revolution, CIBs are making investments in innovation across product, operations and client experience.
“What banks are striving to do is to provide the groundwork to capture high velocity cross-border payment flows with the associated effects, transaction spreads and revenues that these banks can derive,” Garcia said. “It is about proposing innovative products to manage working capital. These new innovative products require the supporting technology.”
On the client experience side, many banks are working to become API-led players, which would enable them to seamlessly provide flowing data through their clients’ systems.
“Many of the bank executives we interviewed said the revenue is not increasing via these new products. On the other side, a lot of the clients feel rather indifferent or dissatisfied with their banks’ digital interaction,” Garcia said.
A change in mindset
Historically, most of the transformations undergone by CIBs have been the result of increased regulation in the sector, but Garcia warns this approach will not stand the test of time.
“That’s not how you are going to be able to transform, to really consider the client’s expectations and to ensure that you are competitive against people who don’t have your legacy constraints,” he said. “That requires a clear vision of the future and very strong sponsorship at a senior level.”
Banks will need to make a long-term financial commitment to support the execution of this vision. As they work to shift from a product-centric business model to a client-centric one, scalable and flexible infrastructure around data is needed to ensure the right decisions are being made across the business.
“Banks are regulated, and because of that they are trusted by corporate clients. They feel safe with banks, especially compared to new players,” Garcia said. “Now the challenge will be to maintain that through their governance and modelling processes, especially as banks increase their use of AI.”
The report found many clients (89%) question the reliability of AI-generated outputs with the use of emerging technologies in banking services, underscoring why transparency is key to earning their confidence.
“It is crucial that these organisations get moving with all the elements aligned. It can’t be siloed somewhere within the business. It has to be a big commitment, starting with those at the top of the business.”
