Original text here from Patrice Bernard (LinkedIn)
Following the presentation of its strategic plan for 2030, Groupe BPCE has unveiled its project to transform its IT infrastructure. Though ambitious, the chosen approach prioritizes a relatively low-risk rationalization—while passing up the opportunity for a more radical vision.
The goal is to replace the two coexisting information systems—dating back to the merger of Banques Populaires and Caisses d'Épargne—with a single version for all retail banking entities (except BRED and CASDEN, which will retain their own systems). Visually, the new system will still reflect the respective blue and red branding of the banks. The Caisses d'Épargne platform, considered the more modern of the two, will serve as the foundation.
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The migration program, which will impact Banques Populaires the most, has a budget in the hundreds of millions of euros (between €500 million and €750 million, depending on sources) and is expected to span four years. The goal is to achieve over €100 million in annual savings, with profitability projected in five to six years—though, given the inevitable delays and cost overruns of such large-scale projects, a more realistic timeframe might be closer to ten years.
BPCE is following the same technological strategy as Société Générale, which previously integrated Crédit du Nord under a similar efficiency-driven approach. While the official messaging emphasizes enhanced scalability, the real benefit lies in resource pooling. This is unsurprising given the current global focus on cost control, but it may come back to haunt these banks in the future.
The decision effectively anchors BPCE’s future on a legacy infrastructure, parts of which are outdated or aging. Given the projected timeline and financial constraints, this situation will likely remain unchanged for the next 10 to 15 years, during which technical debt will only accumulate. In a rapidly evolving environment, this could pose a serious threat to competitiveness.
Of course, the alternative—a complete modernization of BPCE’s IT assets—would require a significantly larger investment (in the billions) and come with substantial execution risks, as seen in numerous failed projects worldwide. However, the urgency for modernization is growing. Legacy systems have become overly complex and fragile (as illustrated by Barclays' recent IT meltdown in the UK), and banks increasingly need flexible architectures to handle evolving and unpredictable demands.
