Bank of Sydney, now led by permanent CEO Kieran McKenna, has gone live on the Infosys Finacle Digital Banking Suite, delivered as a Software-as-a-Service model hosted on Amazon Web Services, becoming the latest Australian lender to overhaul ageing infrastructure amid rising customer expectations and competition from digital-first rivals.
The shift is part of a broader wave. Microsoft forecasts Australian public cloud spending will reach $22.4 billion in 2026, an 83% increase from $12.2 billion in 2022 — growth increasingly driven by banks moving core systems onto cloud platforms.
The rollout brings together Finacle's core banking, digital engagement, online and mobile banking solutions onto a single platform, replacing a more fragmented legacy IT environment.
According to Infosys Finacle, the new setup is pre-configured for Australian banking products and connects to other systems through open APIs, allowing Bank of Sydney to automate more of its back-end processing while giving customers real-time transaction processing, fast payments, and expanded self-service options across online and mobile channels.
Bank of Sydney chair Nikolas Hatzistergos credited McKenna's leadership for the transition's success, saying he "successfully steered one of the most significant milestones in our organisation's history, delivering our core banking transition on time and within agreed parameters."
For brokers, the practical upside is speed: faster, more automated back-end systems and quicker product launches through the Finacle Reference Bank model — a combination that could mean shorter turnaround times and smoother digital submissions for broker-originated loans.
Speaking when Bank of Sydney first signed on to the platform in late 2025, then-chief executive Melos Sulicich said the goal was "to become the leading deposit bank in Australia," with the technology overhaul "crucial to meeting these objectives." AWS's Australia and New Zealand banking director, Jamie Simon, said the shift was designed to help lenders "achieve faster time to market while optimising costs."
The stakes for getting this right are significant. Broker Pulse data for March 2026 shows turnaround times already vary enormously across the market — from as little as two business days at smaller ADIs such as Advantedge to nearly 20 days at slower-moving lenders like Newcastle Permanent.
With turnaround times already this varied across the market, faster processing could become a genuine point of difference for Bank of Sydney — if the platform delivers on that promise.
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