With the possible exception of medical providers, financial institutions handle some of the most sensitive information consumers possess—Social Security numbers, income and employment details, credit histories, account balances, and more. Protecting this data is not only essential to maintaining consumer trust but is also a legal requirement under the Gramm‑Leach‑Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Safeguards Rule. Together, these regulations establish a comprehensive framework for how financial institutions must secure, manage, and protect consumer information throughout its lifecycle.

Although the GLBA has been in effect for a couple of decades, and the FTC Safeguarding Rule was put into effect in 2003 and updated for smart phone usage in 2021 with penalties taking effect in 2023, we thought a review would be helpful for executives of financial institutions as well as fintechs. Below, we break down the core requirements of GLBA and the Safeguards Rule, along with practical considerations for financial institutions striving to meet and exceed compliance expectations. While the regulatory language can feel intricate, the intent is clear: organizations must take proactive, documented, and continually improving measures to safeguard customer data from unauthorized access, misuse, and breaches.

The GLBA: Overview and Purpose

Enacted in 1999, GLBA reversed the Glass-Steagall Act, modernizing the financial services industry by allowing greater integration across banking, securities, and insurance markets. But along with this expanded capability came heightened responsibility. Title V of GLBA—the Privacy Rule and the Safeguards Rule—requires financial institutions to:

1. Explain their information‑sharing practices to consumers
2. Protect the security and confidentiality of nonpublic personal information (NPI)
3. Limit data sharing with non‑affiliated third parties unless certain conditions are met

The law defines “financial institution” broadly, extending beyond banks to include mortgage brokers, lenders, payday loan companies, tax preparation firms, investment advisers, fintechs, and various other service providers engaged in financial activities.

The FTC Safeguards Rule: Framework for a Modern Security Program

The FTC Safeguards Rule—originally issued under GLBA and updated significantly in 2021 and 2023—provides the detailed blueprint for how financial institutions must secure customer information. The rule outlines administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that organizations must implement as part of a comprehensive information security program.

Here are the foundational elements required under the rule:

1. Designation of a Qualified Individual

Every financial institution must appoint a Qualified Individual (“QI”) responsible for implementing and overseeing the company’s information security program. This person may be an internal employee or an external service provider, but accountability ultimately remains with the institution’s leadership.

2. Risk Assessment

A written, formal risk assessment must identify reasonably foreseeable internal and external threats to customer information. This includes evaluating:

• Data storage and transmission methods
• Employee access
• Third‑party risks
• System vulnerabilities
• Potential impact of data compromise

The risk assessment must guide the selection and implementation of safeguards and guardrails, ensuring they are appropriate to the institution’s size, complexity, and the sensitivity of the data it handles.

3. Implementation of Safeguards Aligned to Identified Risks

The Safeguards Rule specifies several required protections:

• Access Controls: Ensure only authorized personnel can access sensitive data, requiring under the regulation role‑based permissions and least‑privilege principles.
• Encryption: Encrypt customer data both in transit and at rest.
• Multi‑Factor Authentication (“MFA”): Require MFA for any access to systems containing customer information. This requirement is why you have to constantly check your phone and keep yourself in Wi-Fi every time you use that financial website or app.
• Secure Development Practices: Implement secure coding practices and change‑management procedures.
• Data Inventory and Mapping: Maintain a clear understanding of where data resides, how it flows, and who has access. Data lineage is generally considered a next natural step once data inventory and mapping is completed.
• Monitoring and Logging: Continuously monitor systems for unauthorized activity and maintain detailed event logs.
• Vulnerability Management: Conduct routine scans, penetration testing, and timely patch management.

These safeguards ensure that institutions take a proactive rather than reactive approach to data protection.

4. Employee Training

Human error is among the most common causes of data breaches. The rule mandates that institutions provide regular security awareness training designed to equip employees with the knowledge to identify threats such as phishing, social engineering, or unauthorized data access attempts.

5. Oversight of Service Providers

Many financial institutions rely on third‑party vendors for critical operations, from cloud hosting to data analytics. Under the Safeguards Rule, institutions must:

• Conduct due diligence before engaging vendors
• Ensure contracts contain specific data‑security obligations
• Monitor vendor compliance

This requirement reflects the increasingly interconnected ecosystem of financial technology and the shared responsibility model.

6. Incident Response Planning

The rule requires a written incident response plan that outlines:

• Roles and responsibilities
• Internal and external communication procedures
• Criteria for defining events
• Steps for containment, remediation, and recovery
• Documentation and post‑incident analysis

A well‑designed plan ensures organizations can respond to security events quickly and effectively.

7. Annual Reporting to the Board of Directors

At least once a year, the QI (remember #1 above) must deliver a written report to the board or governing body detailing:

• Program status
• Risk assessment findings
• Security events and responses
• Recommendations for improvement

This ensures executive oversight and board accountability.

Conclusion

As financial data becomes increasingly valuable and cyber threats more advanced, GLBA and the FTC Safeguards Rule provide a structured, strategic framework for protecting consumer information. Institutions that embrace these requirements not as a checkbox exercise but as a guide to building a mature, adaptive security program position themselves for stability, trust, and competitive advantage.

Failure to comply can lead to substantial financial penalties; reputational damage; a significant and perhaps permanent loss of consumer trust; and increased scrutiny form federal regulators.

If your firm would like assistance designing or adopting robust cybersecurity strategies aligned with GLBA and the Safeguards Rule as part of migrating to the cloud with a consulting partner that has deep industry expertise – reach out to us here.

This blog was co-authored by Perficient Project Manager: Alicia Lawrence

As a global organization headquartered in St. Louis, Perficient is committed to supporting current and future clients by monitoring federal and state regulations and alerting them of changes that may impact them.  In 2024, Perficient published a blog highlighting insights gathered through continuous monitoring a of the New York State regulations impacting financial services firms:

NYDFS Part 500 Cybersecurity Amendments – What You Need to Know  

This blog highlights key observations and implications of the latest changes to the NYDFS 500 regulations and builds on the previously published blog to inform financial services executives that the NYDFS Part 504 Transaction Monitoring and Filtering Certification is a significant annual regulatory requirement for any institution regulated under New York’s Banking, Insurance or Financial Services Law. The regulation imposes an annual certification on senior officers and board members that their organization’s transaction monitoring and sanctions filtering programs are designed, maintained, and tested to effectively detect money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctioned-party transactions.  

What is Part 504 Certification? 

Under 3 NYCRR Part 504, regulated institutions are legally obligated to: 

• Operate an Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”)-compliant Transaction Monitoring Program, tailored to their risk profile. 

• Run a Watchlist/Sanctions Filtering (i.e., Office of Foreign Assets Control “OFAC” compliance) Program. 

• Annually certify, by April 15th, that these programs meet the Part 504 control standards, even if an institution finds and is actively remediating deficiencies.  

The certification itself covers the prior calendar year and is a standalone submission via DFS’ portal. The certification doesn’t require and actually prohibits the submission of supporting documentation. However, institutions must maintain records supporting their certification for potential DFS review. Such documentation includes internal/external audit results, scenario logic, testing strategy and results, and if necessary, documentation of remediation efforts and remediation plans. 

A link to the page is available here: 

Transaction Monitoring Certification (3 NYCRR 504) | Department of Financial Services 

 Who Must Certify? 

Part 504 applies to any institution regulated by NYDFS under its financial services law, including: 

• State-chartered banks 

• Non-bank entities (e.g., money transmitters, Money Services Businesses “MSBs”) 

• Insurance firms offering financial products 

• Other licensed financial service providers 

Why Part 504 Matters 

Part 504 enhances financial integrity by ensuring senior-level accountability, mirroring Sarbanes-Oxley-style executive attestations. Even if an executive or Board member leaves a regulated financial institution, they could still be liable for false certifications made  the institution, should fraud be found after the fact. The NYDFS enacted this after uncovering weaknesses in AML controls across state-supervised banks and nonbanks, underscoring a need for robust governance.  

The regulation aims to: 

• Elevate governance and oversight of AML/OFAC programs. 

• Standardize program controls, including testing, validation, vendor oversight, and qualified staffing.  

• Improve defenses against financial crime and regulatory infractions. 

Key Transaction Monitoring Requirements 

Getting further into the weeds, as required by Section 504.3, an effective program must include the following core components:  

• Risk-Based Design: Align thresholds and detection logic with your institution’s assessed AML and OFAC risks. 
• Periodic Testing & Updates:  
  • Incorporate regular reviews (including model validation and data flows). 

• • Update parameters based on evolving regulatory guidance or business changes.

• Comprehensive Detection Scenarios: Create alert rules targeting suspicious behaviors aligned with your AML risk appetite.
• Full Testing Regimen:  
  • End-to-end testing (pre/post-implementation). 

• • Governance oversight, data quality checks, and scenario validation. 

• Documentation:  
  • Maintain records of detection scenarios, assumptions, thresholds, testing outcomes, and remediation. 

• Alert Handling Protocols:
  • Define investigative workflows, decision points (clear vs escalate), roles, and documentation processes. 

• Ongoing Monitoring:  
  • Continuously review scenario relevance, threshold efficacy, and real-world performance. 

These requirements also extend to sanctions filtering – ensuring timely name screening, alerts, and case management controls are in place. 

Risks of Non–Compliance 

Non-compliance with Part 504 can lead to: 

• DFS enforcement actions, including fines or directives, under Banking Law §37 or Financial Services Law §302.  

• Reputational damage, aka “Headline Risk” if AML or sanctions failures become public. 

• Operational vulnerabilities, including weakened AML controls and potential for financial crime. 

Best Practices for Compliance 

Perficient consultants and compliance SMEs have seen and helped firms build and maintain a rock-solid Part 504 posture by helping design and build the following best practices: 

• Governance Oversight: Including AML leadership and internal/external audit in program reviews. 
• Periodic Program Testing: Conducting fresh scenario validations, testing the design and operation of existing controls, performing data assembly testing, and model verification no less than annually. 
• Issue Remediation: Prioritizing issues for remediation using a risk-based approach and performing issue validation testing.
• Risk Assessment: Execute risk assessments of key business processes and determine inherent and residual risks.
• Staff Training: Ensuring business line staff and compliance leads understand Part 504 requirements and manage alerts effectively. 
• Comprehensive Documentation: Keeping complete audit trails including logs of monitoring system updates, testing reports, governance minutes, and remediation plans. 
• Vendor Oversight: If using third-party monitoring systems, conducting due diligence and regularly reviewing vendor performance. 
• Senior Executive and Board Engagement: Encouraging frequent executive-level reviews, not just during certification preparation aka April 14th. 

Conclusion 

Navigating Part 504 certification isn’t just an annual checkbox. It’s a significant piece of an institution’s AML and OFAC defense. By embedding risk-based monitoring, rigorous testing, and senior-level accountability, regulated institutions in New York not only fulfill their regulatory obligations but also strengthen their ability to deter and detect financial crimes. 

Through consistent governance, meticulous documentation, and leadership engagement, Part 504 becomes more than compliance—it becomes a strategic shield for safeguarding financial integrity. For institutions governed by DFS, this certification confirms that all necessary steps have been taken to comply with Part 504 posture, reputation, and resiliency requirements —all by April 15 each year. 

If you would like to have Perficient SMEs work with you on your Part 504 preparation work – or just have a conversation – reach out to us here. 

Perficient is recognized in Forrester’s Salesforce Consulting Services Landscape, Q4 2025, which notes our North America geographic focus and industry focus in Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing. Forrester asked each provider included in the Landscape to select the top business scenarios for which clients select them and from there determined which are the extended business scenarios that highlight differentiation among the providers. Perficient is shown in the report for having selected Agentforce, Data 360 (Data Cloud), and Industry Clouds as top reasons clients work with us out of those extended business scenarios. Our proven capabilities across Agentforce, Data 360 (Data Cloud), and Industry Clouds help clients achieve measurable outcomes from their Salesforce investments.

We believe this recognition underscores what leading analysts and buyers already know: the next phase of Salesforce is not about bigger projects—it’s about faster proof of value. The partners that win are the ones who shorten time to outcomes, orchestrate across your stack, and help you spend smarter.

How Perficient Turns Insight into Action: Our Outcomes Playbook

Outcome‑first framing becomes practical when the first milestone is small and meaningful. For revenue teams, that might be a lift in qualified pipeline from cleaner data and guided selling. For service teams, it could be faster resolution through better case routing and knowledge. For operations, it may be a reliable view of performance from harmonized data. Each path is sized to prove value quickly, then expanded as results compound.

“Clients want partners who bring clarity to complexity. We focus on strengthening foundations and preparing people for AI so teams can achieve outcomes that last.”
— Megan Glasow, Vice President, Sales & Services-Salesforce

The Uncomfortable Truth

Most teams already “have Salesforce,” yet value stalls in the maze of customizations, parallel orgs, and integrations that never quite talk to each other. The market itself has moved from first deployments to modernization and multi-cloud expansion, which is why traditional, effort‑heavy engagements are delivering diminishing returns. Buyers are asking for partners who can deliver outcomes in increments, with industry IP and operating‑model rigor, not just more bodies.

What Changed, Practically Speaking

Two forces converged. First, core implementation work is easier to standardize, which drives commoditization. Second, AI is now embedded across the platform, including agentic capabilities that can act on your data and processes. That combination rewards teams that fix foundations, make workflows interoperable, and apply AI with governance and observability. When those pieces are in place, outcomes compound quickly.

Three Moves to Make this Quarter

1) Pick one outcome, not five

Choose a business metric that executives care about and design a sprint around it. Example outcomes: faster case resolution in Service, higher conversion in Sales, or lower cost to serve in Commerce. Anchor on a single use case, then use accelerators and standard patterns to get live in weeks. This approach mirrors how leading buyers evaluate providers today, with incremental value and industry use cases as selection criteria.

Quick start checklist:

• One KPI that is visible to the business
• A standard pattern or accelerator to reduce custom build time
• A simple adoption plan with role clarity and feedback loops

2) Orchestrate, do not bolt on

Real value shows up when workflows span systems. Map an end‑to‑end process across Salesforce and your adjacent platforms, then eliminate the handoffs that slow customers down. Expect your partner to bring reference architectures and integration patterns that make the process portable and resilient. Forrester’s guidance is explicit on this point: buyers want orchestrated workflows across tech stacks for true transformation.

3) Make ROI Repeatable

Set a cadence for license alignment, customization reduction, and tech debt cleanup. Consolidate orgs where the business case is clear. Replace custom objects with native capabilities when possible. Tie every change to operating cost, agility, or customer outcomes.

How to Choose a Partner without a 50‑page RFP

Ask three questions that cut through the noise:

• Can you show the intersection of your skills for my use case?
• What will you deliver first, and how will we measure it?
• What guardrails will be in place on day one?

Perficient’s POV: The Bottom Line

We show the intersection of our skills for your exact use case, deliver a working release tied to a single KPI in the initial increment, and put governance and auditability in place from day one. The result is measurable value, clarity on what to scale next, and confidence that outcomes will keep improving with each iteration.

If your 2026 goals include faster time to value, better orchestration, and disciplined ROI, book a modernization strategy session with our team. We will assess your current org, identify quick wins, and design an incremental plan aligned to your outcomes. Then move from strategy to proof in Outcome Over Effort, Part 2: Build, Govern, Measure, where we walk through a simple operating model to get one agent live, protect accuracy and access, and show measurable lift you can expand.

Next month’s webinar features insights from guest speakers, Forrester’s Kate Leggett and Salesforce’s Kaylin Voss, on outcomes, orchestration, and responsible AI. Bookmark this page and check back next month for details.

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity  here .

The financial services industry is undergoing significant transformation, driven by the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. As financial institutions strive to stay competitive, they’re leveraging these technologies to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and risk management. At Data Science Salon NYC, I had the opportunity to join industry experts in discussing the latest trends and innovations shaping our field. Here are four key takeaways from the event: 

AI Adoption Starts with Customer-Centric Use Cases 

Financial institutions are using AI to enhance customer experience through personalized services, and we’re seeing the most immediate impact in areas like call centers and knowledge retrieval. When we talk about saving time and effort, customer experience is an easy space where we can start thinking about answering questions faster.  

By putting the customer at the center and leveraging AI-driven analytics, financial institutions can gain deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling them to tailor services to meet specific needs. The key is starting with use cases that have clear, measurable impact on customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. 

Data Science Is About Business Outcomes, Not Just Technology 

One of the most important lessons we continue to emphasize: Data science is not just about algorithms and technology; it’s about business value. In our work with financial services and insurance clients, we’re constantly focused on driving tangible business results. 

When measuring success, we need to have open conversations because business leaders have very different definitions of success than technology leaders. Yes, latency is important, but at what point does that latency drive or impact revenue or costs? Ultimately, we need to put a dollar sign in front of it. Success boils down to two key metrics: 

Does it move the bottom line? 

Are people actually using it? 

Success is defined as whether everyone can use that tool and whether it’s simple to follow. In the end, it’s people who are driving the revenue. Financial institutions that invest in data science innovation with this business-first mindset are better positioned to stay ahead of the competition and drive real growth. 

AI Governance Isn’t a Yes or No Decision 

One of the biggest things we’re encouraging any enterprise to do as they think about AI governance is understanding that very few evaluations come down to a “yes” or “no” decision. Rather, we should strive to define the risk mitigations necessary to get a “yes.” Effective AI governance involves establishing clear frameworks that include: 

• Continuous monitoring and auditing of AI systems for bias and performance 

• Transparent AI explainability to build trust among stakeholders and regulators 

• Open dialogue about risk mitigation strategies 

We must make sure we’re building trust beyond the vendor level, but on each individual use case. By implementing thoughtful governance, financial institutions can manage risks while still innovating confidently. 

Adoption and Change Management Are Critical Success Factors 

The adoption question is crucial: Are people actually using it? We need to educate our teams on what we’re doing, why we’re doing these things, and how they can take advantage of it. 

One practice we always recommend is A/B testing. Many organizations don’t always A/B test the efficacy of the AI tool versus not having the AI tool. Instead of giving it to everyone at once, we’ve taken one area, split teams in half, and had one side do the work the traditional way while the other uses the new AI tool. This allows us to measure real impact and build confidence in the technology. 

AI-powered solutions are increasingly being used to detect and prevent financial crimes such as money laundering and fraud through predictive modeling and anomaly detection techniques. By leveraging these technologies thoughtfully (with proper governance, testing, and adoption strategies) financial institutions can reduce risk while improving regulatory compliance. 

Looking Ahead 

The key to success in AI and data science isn’t just adopting the latest technology, it’s ensuring that technology drives measurable business value, is governed responsibly, and is adopted by the people who need to use it. When we get those three elements right, that’s when we see transformational results in financial services. 

To learn more about Perficient’s AI capabilities in the financial services industry, visit https://www.perficient.com/industries/financial-services. For more AI insights, sign up for Perficient’s AI-First Newsletter.

Moments of currency change are where fortunes are made and lost. In January 2026, Bulgaria will enter one of those moments. The country will adopt the euro and officially retire the Bulgarian lev, marking a major euro adoption milestone and reshaping how investors, banks, and global firms manage currency risk in the region. The shift represents one of the most significant macroeconomic transitions in Bulgaria’s modern history and is already drawing attention across FX markets.

To understand how dramatically foreign exchange movements can shift value, consider one of the most famous examples in modern financial history. In September 1992, investor George Soros, “the man who broke the British Bank,” bet against the British pound, anticipating that the UK’s exchange rate policy would collapse. The resulting exchange rate crisis, now known as Black Wednesday, became a defining moment in forex trading and demonstrated how quickly policy decisions can trigger massive market dislocations.

By selling roughly $10 billion worth of pounds, his Quantum Fund earned ~$1 billion in profit when the currency was forced to devalue. The trade earned Soros the nickname “the man who broke the Bank of England” and remains a lasting example of how quickly confidence and capital flows can move entire currency systems.

GBP/USD exchange rate from May 1992 to April 1993, highlighting the dramatic plunge during Black Wednesday. When George Soros famously shorted the pound, forcing the UK out of the ERM and triggering one of the most significant currency crises in modern history

To be clear, Bulgaria is not in crisis. The Soros example simply underscores how consequential currency decisions can be. Even when they unfold calmly and by design, currency transitions reshape the texture of daily life. The significance of Bulgaria’s transition becomes more clear when you consider what the lev has long represented. Safety. Families relied on it through political uncertainty and economic swings, saved it for holidays, passed it down during milestones, and trusted it in moments when little else felt predictable. Over time, the lev became a source of stability as Bulgaria navigated decades of change and gradually aligned itself with the European Union..

Its retirement feels both symbolic and historic. But for global markets, currency traders, banks, and companies engaged in cross border business, the transition is not just symbolic. It introduces real operational changes that require early attention. This article explains what is happening, why it matters, and how organizations can prepare.

Some quick facts help frame the scale of this shift.

Map of Bulgaria

Bulgaria has a population of roughly 6.5 million.

The country’s GDP is about 90 billion U.S. dollars (World Bank, 2024)

Its largest trade partners are EU member states, Turkey, and China.

Why Bulgaria Is Adopting the Euro

​​Although the move from the Lev to the Euro is monumental, many Bulgarians also see it as a natural progression. ​​When Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, Euro adoption was always part of the long-term plan. Adopting the Euro gives Bulgaria a stronger foundation for investment, more predictable trade relationships, and smoother participation in Europe’s financial systems. It is the natural next step in a journey the country has been moving toward slowly, intentionally, and with growing confidence. That measured approach fostered public and institutional trust, leading European authorities to approve Bulgaria’s entry into the Eurozone on January 1, 2026 (European Commission, 2023; European Central Bank, 2023).

How Euro Adoption Affects Currency Markets

Bulgaria’s economy includes manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and service sectors. Its exports include refined petroleum, machinery, copper products, and apparel. It imports machinery, fuels, vehicles, and pharmaceuticals (OECD, 2024). The Euro supports smoother trade relationships within these sectors and reduces barriers for European partners.

Once Bulgaria switches to the Euro, the Lev will quietly disappear from global currency screens. Traders will no longer see familiar pairs like USD to BGN or GBP to BGN. Anything involving Bulgaria will now flow through euro-based pairs instead. In practical terms, the Lev simply stops being part of the conversation.

For people working on trading desks or in treasury teams, this creates a shift in how risk is measured day to day. Hedging strategies built around the Lev will transition to euro-based approaches. Models that once accounted for Lev-specific volatility will have to be rewritten. Automated trading programs that reference BGN pricing will need to be updated or retired. Even the market data providers that feed information into these systems will phase out Lev pricing entirely.

And while Bulgaria may be a smaller player in the global economy, the retirement of a national currency is never insignificant. It ripples through the internal workings of trading floors, risk management teams, and the systems that support them . It is a reminder that even quiet changes in one part of the world can require thoughtful adjustments across the financial landscape.

Combined with industry standard year-end code-freezes, Perficient has seen and helped clients stop their Lev trading weeks before year-end.

The Infrastructure Work Behind Adopting the Euro

Adopting the Euro is not just a change people feel sentimental about. Behind the scenes, it touches almost every system that moves money. Every financial institution uses internal currency tables to keep track of existing currencies, conversion rules, and payment routing. When a currency is retired, every system that touches money must be updated to reflect the change.

This includes:

• Core banking and treasury platforms
• Trading systems
• Accounting and ERP software
• Payment networks, including SWIFT and ISO 20022
• Internal data warehouses and regulatory reporting systems

Why Global Firms Should Pay Attention

If the Lev remains active anywhere after the transition, payments can fail, transactions can be misrouted, and reconciliation issues can occur. The Bank for International Settlements notes that currency changes require “significant operational coordination,” because risk moves across systems faster than many institutions expect. 

Beyond the technical updates, the disappearance of the Lev also carries strategic implications for multinational firms. Any organization that operates across borders, whether through supply chains, treasury centers, or shared service hubs, relies on consistent currency identifiers to keep financial data aligned. If even one system, vendor, or regional partner continues using the old code, firms can face cascading issues such as misaligned ledgers, failed hedging positions, delayed settlements, and compliance flags triggered by mismatched reporting. In a world where financial operations are deeply interconnected, a seemingly local currency change can ripple outward and affect global liquidity management and operational continuity.

Many firms have already started their transition work well in advance of the official date in order to minimize risk. In practice, this means reviewing currency tables, updating payment logic, testing cross-border workflows, and making sure SWIFT and ISO 20022 messages recognize the new structure. 

Trade Finance Will Feel the Change

For people working in finance, this shift will change the work they do every day. Tools like Letters of Credit and Banker’s Acceptances are the mechanisms that keep international trade moving, and they depend on accurate currency terms. If any of these agreements are written to settle in Lev, they will need to be updated before January 2026.

That means revising contracts, invoices, shipping documents, and long-term payment schedules. Preparing early gives exporters, importers, and the teams supporting them the chance to keep business running smoothly through the transition.

What Euro Adoption Means for Businesses

Switching to the Euro unlocks several practical benefits that go beyond finance departments.

• Lower currency conversion costs
• More consistent pricing for long-term agreements
• Faster cross-border payments within the European Union
• Improved financial reporting and reduced foreign exchange risk
• Increased investor confidence in a more stable currency environment

Because so much of Bulgaria’s trade already occurs with Eurozone countries, using the Euro simplifies business operations and strengthens economic integration.

How Organizations Can Prepare

The most important steps for institutions include:

1. Auditing systems and documents for references to BGN
2. Updating currency tables and payment rules
3. Revising Letters of Credit and other agreements that list the Lev
4. Communicating the transition timeline to partners and clients
5. Testing updated systems well before January 1, 2026

Early preparation ensures a smooth transition when Bulgaria officially adopts the Euro. Ensure that operationally you’re prepared to accept Lev payments through December 31, 2025, but given settlement timeframes, prepared to reconcile and settle Lev transactions into 2026.a

Final Thoughts

The Bulgarian Lev has accompanied the country through a century of profound change. Its retirement marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter in Bulgaria’s economic story. For the global financial community, Bulgaria’s adoption of the Euro is not only symbolic but operationally significant.

Handled thoughtfully, the transition strengthens financial infrastructure, reduces friction in global business, and supports a more unified European economy.

References 

Bank for International Settlements. (2024). Foreign exchange market developments and global liquidity trends. https://www.bis.org

Eichengreen, B. (1993). European monetary unification. Journal of Economic Literature, 31(3), 1321–1357.

European Central Bank. (2023). Convergence report. https://www.ecb.europa.eu

European Commission. (2023). Economic and monetary union: Euro adoption process. https://ec.europa.eu

Henriques, D. B. (2011). The billionaire was not always so bold. The New York Times.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2024). Economic surveys: Bulgaria. https://www.oecd.org

World Bank. (2024). Bulgaria: Country data and economic indicators. https://data.worldbank.org/country/bulgaria

On December 16^th, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) became the first US regulatory body to utilize the GENIUS Act and create procedures for institutions to issue payment stablecoins. The GENIUS Act was enacted on July 18, 2025, and will become effective on January 18, 2027, so there is still time to determine how your institution will navigate the new regulatory landscape. The FDIC approval marks a significant milestone in the evolving landscape of digital currencies and their integration into the traditional financial system. As the financial sector continues to embrace innovation, the FDIC’s decision provides much-needed clarity and regulatory guidance for institutions looking to venture into the stablecoin market.

For those unfamiliar, stablecoins are digital currencies pegged to the value of a traditional currency and have been gaining traction as a means of facilitating fast and secure transactions. By establishing a clear framework for their issuance, the FDIC is paving the way for FDIC-supervised institutions to explore this emerging market with greater confidence.

At Perficient, we believe that the new procedures will drive innovation in payment systems, enhance financial inclusion, and provide consumers with more choices for conducting transactions. We also believe that the act will allow significant innovation in the Treasury Services space and allow new Treasury entrants to embrace the new state of the art technology and leap to the head of the industry, just as the adoption of smart phones and the Internet allowed new leaders to emerge in those industries.

Key Highlights in the New Regulation

Readers must know that the FDIC approved proposal refers to the subsidiary of an Insured Depository Institution (“IDI”) that has been approved to issue payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act as a Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer, or “PPSI” – an acronym that will soon become widely used in the industry.

The proposal limits PPSI’s activities to:

• issuing and redeeming payment stablecoins,
• managing related reserves,
• providing payment stablecoin and reserve custodial and safekeeping services,
• and engaging in digital asset service provider activities.

The proposal sharply prohibits pledging, rehypothecating, or reusing a PPSI’s reserves assets. The PPSI’s reserves are the digital equivalent to cash in the vault.

What the FDIC Will Require

The FDIC’s proposal outlines specific requirements for stablecoin issuance by PPSIs. To be eligible, the subsidiary must:

• maintain identifiable reserves backing the outstanding payment stablecoins on at least a 1 to 1 basis,
• Maintain reserves comprised of specified categories of high-quality assets,
• Document the ability to relatedly meet the monthly reserve disclosure requirements applicable to a PPSI.
  • The reserve disclosure requirements include disclosing the composition of the PPSI’s reserves on its website and
  • submitting to the FDIC certified reports examined by a public accounting firm regarding the prior month’s reserve composition disclosure.

Additionally, the FDIC is required to consider the ability of the PPSI, based on financial condition and resources, to comply with forthcoming regulations to be issued by the FDIC regarding:

1. capital requirements
2. liquidity requirements
3. reserve asset diversification
4. operational, compliance, and information technology risk management principles-based requirements and standards, including but not limited to:
   1. Bank Secrecy Act
   2. Know Your Customer and
   3. Sanctions Standards

Therefore, while a significant landmark regulation, there are still more regulations to come before January 2027.

If your IDI is ready to start down this road as an applicant to create a state-of-the-art Treasury Payment subsidiary to issue and redeem stablecoins, you will need a partner with decades of background in the financial services industry. Perhaps one that has been trusted by 18 of the top 20 banks, 16 of the 20 largest wealth and asset management firms and are regularly recognized by leading analyst firms. If this sounds like the type of trusted partner you need to help build your Treasury Payment abilities, reach out to Perficient’s Financial Services Managing Director David Weisel to start a conversation.

Perficient is proud to be named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Experience Build Services 2025 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US52973125, October 2025) and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Experience Design Services 2025 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US52973225, October 2025). These IDC MarketScapes assessed providers, offering a comprehensive framework including product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current/future market success factors.

“We believe being recognized by IDC for Experience Design and Experience Build reinforces the impact we have on behalf of clients creating personalized, seamless interactions that accelerate growth. In today’s experience-driven economy, that’s the competitive advantage that matters,” says Erin Rushman, general manager of digital marketing and experience design operations at Perficient.

What This Inclusion Means for Perficient

Being named a Major Player, we believe, underscores our dedication to transforming customer experiences and empowering businesses through personalized, seamless, and impactful interactions. Perficient combines strategy and research with human-centered design to help organizations craft agile, customer-focused solutions that thrive in dynamic markets. By leveraging data-driven insights, personalization, AI, and more, we deliver end-to-end experiences that deepen engagement and drive measurable business impact.

According to the IDC MarketScape for Experience Design Services, “Perficient has strong capabilities in digital offering design and offers leading-edge experience design services backed by a global innovation network.” The report also notes, “In conversations with Perficient’s reference clients, the three areas where experience design services buyers commended the vendor highly were for the quality of its professionals, for its industry specific capabilities, and differentiation as a vendor.”

The IDC MarketScape for Experience Build Services states, “As an independent digital experience agency, Perficient combines business and technology transformation capabilities, including a robust collection of supporting assets and tools, with a focus on the design and build of customer experiences. Perficient has strong personalization capabilities.”

Additionally, Perficient was named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape for Customer Experience Strategy Consulting Services 2025 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US52973025, September 2025). We believe this inclusion reflects our commitment to delivering AI-first solutions that transform customer experiences through scalable, high-impact innovations. It establishes Perficient as a trusted partner, driving unmatched success in the experience-driven market of tomorrow.

Read the News Release: Perficient Named a Major Player in Three IDC MarketScapes For AI-First Approach to Customer Experience

What This Inclusion Means for Our Clients

Perficient continues to be a leader in experience strategy and design, helping clients align vision, accelerate innovation, and achieve lasting transformation. We enable businesses to embed AI into processes and deliver personalized customer experiences at scale. By expanding and strengthening alliances with partners, we ensure our solutions remain innovative and leading-edge, empowering clients to stay ahead in a dynamic market.

Exceptional CX is essential for growth and loyalty. Our expertise across platforms and global delivery ensures brands can quickly adapt, innovate, and meet rising customer expectations. Explore our expertise to see how we can be a partner in your experience journey.

Financial institutions are at a pivotal moment. As customer expectations evolve and AI reshapes digital engagement, leaders in marketing, CX, and IT must rethink how they deliver value.

Adobe’s report, “State of Customer Experience in Financial Services in an AI-Driven World,” reveals that only 36% of the customer journey is currently personalized, despite 74% of executives acknowledging rising customer expectations. With transformation already underway, financial leaders face five imperatives that demand immediate action to drive relevance, trust, and growth.

1. Make Personalization More Meaningful

Personalization has long been a strategic focus, but today’s consumers expect more than basic segmentation or name-based greetings. They want real-time, omnichannel interactions that align with their financial goals, life stages, and behaviors.

To meet this demand, financial institutions must evolve from reactive personalization to predictive, intent-driven engagement. This means leveraging AI to anticipate needs, orchestrate journeys, and deliver content that resonates with individual context.

Perficient Adobe-consulting principal Ross Monaghan explains, “We are still dealing with disparate data and slow progression into a customer 360 source of truth view to provide effective personalization at scale. What many firms are overlooking is that this isn’t just a data issue. We’re dealing with both a people and process issue where teams need to adjust their operational process of typical campaign waterfall execution to trigger-based and journey personalization.”

His point underscores that personalization challenges go beyond technology. They require cultural and operational shifts to enable real-time, AI-driven engagement.

2. Redesign the Operating Model Around the Customer

Legacy structures often silo marketing, IT, and operations, creating friction in delivering cohesive customer experiences. To compete in a digital-first world, financial institutions must reorient their operating models around the customer, not the org chart.

This shift requires cross-functional collaboration, agile workflows, and shared KPIs that align teams around customer outcomes. It also demands a culture that embraces experimentation and continuous improvement.

Only 3% of financial services firms are structured around the customer journey, though 19% say it should be the ideal.

3. Build Content for AI-Powered Search

As AI-powered search becomes a primary interface for information discovery, the way content is created and structured must change. Traditional SEO strategies are no longer enough.

Customers now expect intelligent, personalized answers over static search results. To stay visible and trusted, financial institutions must create structured, metadata-rich content that performs in AI-powered environments. Content must reflect experience-expertise-authoritativeness-trustworthiness principles and be both machine-readable and human-relevant. Success depends on building discovery journeys that work across AI interfaces while earning customer confidence in moments that matter.

4. Unify Data and Platforms for Scalable Intelligence

Disconnected data and fragmented platforms limit the ability to generate insights and act on them at scale. To unlock the full potential of AI and automation, financial institutions must unify their data ecosystems.

This means integrating customer, behavioral, transactional, and operational data into a single source of truth that’s accessible across teams and systems. It also involves modernizing MarTech and CX platforms to support real-time decisioning and personalization.

But Ross points out, “Many digital experience and marketing platforms still want to own all data, which is just not realistic, both in reality and cost. The firms that develop their customer source of truth (typically cloud-based data platforms) and signal to other experience or service platforms will be the quickest to marketing execution maturity and success.”

His insight emphasizes that success depends not only on technology integration but also on adopting a federated approach that accelerates marketing execution and operational maturity.

5. Embed Guardrails Into GenAI Execution

As financial institutions explore GenAI use cases, from content generation to customer service automation, governance must be built in from the start. Trust is non-negotiable in financial services, and GenAI introduces new risks around accuracy, bias, and compliance.

Embedding guardrails means establishing clear policies, human-in-the-loop review processes, and robust monitoring systems. It also requires collaboration between legal, compliance, marketing, and IT to ensure responsible innovation.

At Perficient, we use our PACE (Policies, Advocacy, Controls, Enablement) Framework to holistically design tailored operational AI programs that empower business and technical stakeholders to innovate with confidence while mitigating risks and upholding ethical standards.

The Time to Lead is Now

The future of financial services will be defined by how intelligently and responsibly institutions engage in real time. These five imperatives offer a blueprint for action, each one grounded in data, urgency, and opportunity. Leaders who move now will be best positioned to earn trust, drive growth, and lead in the AI-powered era.

Learn About Perficient and Adobe’s Partnership

Are you looking for a partner to help you transform and modernize your technology strategy? Perficient and Adobe bring together deep industry expertise and powerful experience technologies to help financial institutions unify data, orchestrate journeys, and deliver customer-centric experiences that build trust and drive growth.

Get in Touch With Our Experts

I think about the early ATMs now and then. No one knew the “right” way to use them. I imagine a customer in the 1970s standing there, card in hand, squinting at this unfamiliar machine and hoping it would give something back; trying to decide if it really dispensed cash…or just ate cards for sport. That quick panic when the machine pulled the card in is an early version of the same confusion customers feel today in digital banking.

People were not afraid of machines. They were afraid of not understanding what the machine was doing with their money.

Banks solved it by teaching people how to trust the process. They added clear instructions, trained staff to guide customers, and repeated the same steps until the unfamiliar felt intuitive. 

However, the stakes and complexity are much higher now, and AI for financial product transparency is becoming essential to an optimized banking UX.

Today’s banking customer must navigate automated underwriting, digital identity checks, algorithmic risk models, hybrid blockchain components, and disclosures written in a language most people never use. Meanwhile, the average person is still struggling with basic money concepts.

FINRA reports that only 37% of U.S. adults can answer four out of five financial literacy questions (FINRA Foundation, 2022).

Pew Research finds that only about half of Americans understand key concepts like inflation and interest (Pew Research Center, 2024).

Financial institutions are starting to realize that clarity is not a content task or a customer service perk. It is structural. It affects conversion, compliance, risk, and trust. It shapes the entire digital experience. And AI is accelerating the pressure to treat clarity as infrastructure.

When customers don’t understand, they don’t convert. When they feel unsure, they abandon the flow. 

How AI is Improving UX in Banking (And Why Institutions Need it Now)

Financial institutions often assume customers will “figure it out.” They will Google a term, reread a disclosure, or call support if something is unclear. In reality, most customers simply exit the flow.

The CFPB shows that lower financial literacy leads to more mistakes, higher confusion, and weaker decision-making (CFPB, 2019). And when that confusion arises during a digital journey, customers quietly leave without resolving their questions.

This means every abandoned application costs money. Every misinterpreted term creates operational drag. Every unclear disclosure becomes a compliance liability. Institutions consistently point to misunderstanding as a major driver of complaints, errors, and churn (Lusardi et al., 2020).

Sometimes it feels like the industry built the digital bank faster than it built the explanation for it.

Where AI Makes the Difference

Many discussions about AI in financial services focus on automation or chatbots, but the real opportunity lies in real-time clarity. Clarity that improves financial product transparency and streamlines customer experience without creating extra steps.

In-context Explanations That Improve Understanding

Research in educational psychology shows people learn best when information appears the moment they need it. Mayer (2019) demonstrates that in-context explanations significantly boost comprehension. Instead of leaving the app to search unfamiliar terms, customers receive a clear, human explanation on the spot.

Consistency Across Channels

Language in banking is surprisingly inconsistent. Apps, websites, advisors, and support teams all use slightly different terms. Capgemini identifies cross-channel inconsistency as a major cause of digital frustration (Capgemini, 2023). A unified AI knowledge layer solves this by standardizing definitions across the system.

Predictive Clarity Powered by Behavioral Insight

Patterns like hesitation, backtracking, rapid clicking, or form abandonment often signal confusion. Behavioral economists note these patterns can predict drop-off before it happens (Loibl et al., 2021). AI can flag these friction points and help institutions fix them.

24/7 Clarity, Not 9–5 Support

Accenture reports that most digital banking interactions now occur outside of business hours (Accenture, 2023). AI allows institutions to provide accurate, transparent explanations anytime, without relying solely on support teams.

At its core, AI doesn’t simplify financial products. It translates them.

What Strong AI-Powered Customer Experience Looks Like

Onboarding that Explains Itself

• Mortgage flows with one-sentence escrow definitions.
• Credit card applications with visual explanations of usage.
  
• Hybrid products that show exactly what blockchain is doing behind the scenes. The CFPB shows that simpler, clearer formats directly improve decision quality (CFPB, 2020).

A Unified Dictionary Across Channels

The Federal Reserve emphasizes the importance of consistent terminology to help consumers make informed decisions (Federal Reserve Board, 2021). Some institutions now maintain a centralized term library that powers their entire ecosystem, creating a cohesive experience instead of fragmented messaging.

Personalization Based on User Behavior

Educational nudges, simplified paths, multilingual explanations. Research shows these interventions boost customer confidence (Kozup & Hogarth, 2008). 

Transparent Explanations for Hybrid or Blockchain-backed Products

Customers adopt new technology faster when they understand the mechanics behind it (University of Cambridge, 2021). AI can make complex automation and decentralized components understandable.

The Urgent Responsibilities That Come With This

GenAI can mislead customers without strong data governance and oversight. Poor training data, inconsistent terminology, or unmonitored AI systems create clarity gaps. That’s a problem because those gaps can become compliance issues. The Financial Stability Oversight Council warns that unmanaged AI introduces systemic risk (FSOC, 2023). The CFPB also emphasizes the need for compliant, accurate AI-generated content (CFPB, 2024).

Customers are also increasingly wary of data usage and privacy. Pew Research shows growing fear around how financial institutions use personal data (Pew Research Center, 2023). Trust requires transparency.

Clarity without governance is not clarity. It’s noise.

And institutions cannot afford noise.

What Institutions Should Build Right Now

To make clarity foundational to customer experience, financial institutions need to invest in:

• Modern data pipelines to improve accuracy
• Consistent terminology and UX layers across channels
• Responsible AI frameworks with human oversight
• Cross-functional collaboration between compliance, design, product, and analytics
• Scalable architecture for automated and decentralized product components
• Human-plus-AI support models that enhance, not replace, advisors

When clarity becomes structural, trust becomes scalable.

Why This Moment Matters

I keep coming back to the ATM because it perfectly shows what happens when technology outruns customer understanding. The machine wasn’t the problem. The knowledge gap was. Financial services are reliving that moment today.

Customers cannot trust what they do not understand.

And institutions cannot scale what customers do not trust.

GenAI gives financial organizations a second chance to rebuild the clarity layer the industry has lacked for decades, and not as marketing. Clarity, in this new landscape, truly is infrastructure.

Related Reading

• The Personalization Gap Is Hurting Financial Services, Here’s How to Close It: A discussion of how personalization shortfalls are holding back financial services from meeting customer expectations. 

• Closing the Gap Between Expectations and Experience in Financial Services: Analysis of rising customer expectations and why legacy systems struggle to keep up. 

• Trust Is the New Currency in Financial Services and Customers Are Setting the Terms: A look at how trust, speed, transparency, and control are reshaping what customers expect from their institutions. 

References 

• Accenture. (2023). Banking top trends 2023. https://www.accenture.com
• Capgemini. (2023). World retail banking report 2023. https://www.capgemini.com
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2019). Financial well-being in America. https://www.consumerfinance.gov
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2020). Improving the clarity of mortgage disclosures. https://www.consumerfinance.gov
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2024). Supervisory highlights: Issue 30. https://www.consumerfinance.gov
• Federal Reserve Board. (2021). Consumers and mobile financial services. https://www.federalreserve.gov
• FINRA Investor Education Foundation. (2022). National financial capability study. https://www.finrafoundation.org
• Financial Stability Oversight Council. (2023). Annual report. https://home.treasury.gov
• Kozup, J., & Hogarth, J. (2008). Financial literacy, public policy, and consumers’ self-protection. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 42(2), 263–270.
• Loibl, C., Grinstein-Weiss, M., & Koeninger, J. (2021). Consumer financial behavior in digital environments. Journal of Economic Psychology, 87, 102438.
• Lusardi, A., Mitchell, O. S., & Oggero, N. (2020). The changing face of financial literacy. University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.
• Mayer, R. (2019). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. Cambridge University Press.
• Pew Research Center. (2023). Americans and data privacy. https://www.pewresearch.org
• Pew Research Center. (2024). Americans and financial knowledge. https://www.pewresearch.org
• University of Cambridge. (2021). Global blockchain benchmarking study. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk

In the rapidly expanding realm of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides the infrastructure for countless businesses to operate and innovate. But with an ever-increasing amount of data, applications, and workloads on the cloud protecting this data poses significant security challenges. As a firm’s data, applications, and workloads migrate to the cloud, protecting them from both sophisticated threats as well as brute force digital attacks is of paramount importance. This is where Amazon GuardDuty enters as a powerful, vigilant sentinel.

What is Amazon GuardDuty?

At its core, Amazon GuardDuty is a continuous security monitoring service designed to protect your AWS accounts and workloads. The software serves as a 24/7 security guard for your entire AWS environment, not just individual applications, and is constantly scanning for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior.

The software works by analyzing a wide variety of data sources within your firm’s AWS account—including AWS CloudTrail event logs, VPC flow logs, and DNS query logs—using machine learning, threat intelligence feeds, and anomaly detection techniques.

If an external party tries a brute-force login, a compromised instance is communicating with a known malicious IP address, or an unusual API call is made, GuardDuty is there to spot it and can be configured to trigger automated actions through services can trigger automated actions through services like Amazon CloudWatch Events and AWS Lambda when a threat is found as well as alert human administrators to take action.

When a threat is detected, GuardDuty generates a finding with a severity level (high, medium, or low) and a score. The severity and score both help minimize time spent on more routine exceptions while highlighting significant events to your data security team.

Why is GuardDuty So Important?

In today’s digital landscape, relying solely on traditional, static security measures is not sufficient. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics, which is why GuardDuty is an essential component of your AWS security strategy:

1. Proactive, Intelligent Threat Detection

GuardDuty moves beyond simple rule-based systems. Its use of machine learning allows it to detect anomalies that human security administrators might miss, identifying zero-day threats and subtle changes in behavior that indicate a compromise. It continuously learns and adapts to new threats without requiring manual updates from human security administrators.

2. Near Real-Time Monitoring and Alerting

Speed is critical in incident response. GuardDuty provides findings in near real-time, delivering detailed security alerts directly to the AWS Management Console, Amazon EventBridge, and Amazon Security Hub. This immediate notification allows your firm’s security teams to investigate and remediate potential issues quickly, minimizing potential damage and alerting your firm’s management.

3. Broad Protection Across AWS Services

GuardDuty doesn’t just watch over your firm’s Elastic Compute Cloud (“EC2”) instances. GuardDuty also protects a wide array of AWS services, including:

• Simple Storage Service (“S3”) Buckets: Detecting potential data exfiltration or policy changes that expose sensitive data.
• EKS/Kubernetes: Monitoring for threats to your container workloads.  No more running malware or mining bitcoin in your firm’s containers.
• Databases (Aurora; RDS – MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server; and Redshift): Identifying potential compromise or unauthorized access to data.

Conclusion:

In the cloud, security is a shared responsibility. While AWS manages the security of the cloud infrastructure itself, you are responsible for security in the cloud—protecting your data, accounts, and workloads. Amazon GuardDuty is an indispensable tool in fulfilling that responsibility. It provides an automated, intelligent, and scalable layer of defense that empowers you to stay ahead of malicious actors.

To enable Amazon GuardDuty, consider contacting Perficient to help enable, configure, and train staff. Perficient is an AWS partner and has achieved Premier Tier Services Partner status, the highest tier in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network. This elevated status reflects Perficient’s expertise, long-term investment, and commitment to delivering customer solutions on AWS.

Besides the firm’s Partner Status, Perficient has demonstrated significant expertise in areas like cloud migration, modernization, and AI-driven solutions, with a large team of AWS-certified professionals.

In addition to these competencies, Perficient has been designated for specific service deliveries, such as AWS Glue Service Delivery, and also has available Amazon-approved software in the AWS Marketplace.

Our financial services experts continuously monitor the financial services landscape and deliver pragmatic, scalable solutions that meet the required mandate and more. Reach out to Perficient’s Director and Head of Payments Practice Amanda Estiverne-Colas to discover why Perficient has been trusted by 18 of the top 20 banks, 16 of the 20 largest wealth and asset management firms, and 25+ leading payment + card processing companies.

The days of measuring marketing success by impressions and engagement are over, especially in financial services. Today, marketing leaders are being asked to do more than build brand awareness. They’re expected to drive top-line growth. 

According to Adobe’s report, “State of Customer Experience in Financial Services in an AI-Driven World,” 90% of financial services marketing leaders say they’re now expected to directly contribute to revenue. And 96% are being asked to become more efficient while doing so. 

This new mandate requires not only a change in metrics but a mindset transformation as well. 

Marketing is Now a Growth Engine

Modern financial institutions are retooling their marketing functions to prioritize: 

• Pipeline creation 

• Product adoption 

• Customer lifetime value

Campaigns are no longer judged by vanity KPIs. Success is measured by conversion lift, wallet share, and ROI. That means marketing must operate with the same precision and accountability as sales and finance. 

Performance-Driven Marketing Requires New Infrastructure

To meet these expectations, marketing teams need: 

• Attribution models that tie spend to outcomes 

• Automation platforms that enable real-time optimization 

• Journey tracking that connects every touchpoint to business impact 

Along with the right tools, financial services marketers will also need to build a culture of continuous improvement and commercial fluency. 

Business Fluency is the New Financial Services Marketing Skillset

To lead in this environment, marketers must speak the language of finance. That means understanding: 

• Unit economics 

• Acquisition cost 

• Profitability metrics 

Winning teams are breaking down silos between marketing, sales, and product to drive aligned, data-informed execution. Financial services marketing is moving beyond a support function to a strategic partner in growth. 

Precision, Accountability, and Impact

By embracing data-driven strategies, building the right infrastructure, and fostering commercial fluency, marketing teams can move from a support function to a strategic driver of revenue. The organizations that succeed will be those that align marketing with business outcomes and lead with precision, accountability, and agility. 

Download the full Adobe report to learn more about the top insights shaping financial services marketing and the industry as a whole. 

How Perficient and Adobe Help Financial Services Marketers Lead

We help financial services firms modernize their marketing operations from journey orchestration to performance measurement. Together with Adobe, we’re enabling marketing teams to become growth architects, not just brand custodians. 

Let’s connect and uncover new ways to drive measurable impact together.

In speaking recently with my current co-worker Amanda Estiverne-Colas, who serves as Director and Head of Payments Practice at Perficient, Amanda shared with me statistics she had provided to her audience at the 2025 GULF AML Forum, an annual conference for anti-money laundering (AML) professionals in the financial services industry and government. The statistics, which I found both fascinating and scary, included: 

• Phishing attacks have surged by 4,151% just since ChatGPT’s launch in 2022 

• Phone Phishing attacks increased by 28% in Q3 2024, while smishing incidents rose by 22% 

• More than half (53%) of all breaches involve customer PII, which can include tax identification numbers, emails, phone numbers, and home addresses 

For the clarity of readers, phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending email messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords or credit card numbers, and smishing is the fraudulent practice of sending text messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords or credit card numbers. 

In our hyper-connected world, digital transactions occur at lightning speed, creating a vast and complex landscape for financial crime. While artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are vital in the fight against fraud, the human element remains the cornerstone of effective defense. Fraud detection isn’t just about algorithms; it’s about the people behind the screens—the victims, the fraudsters, the analysts, and the developers. 

As I spoke with Amanda about how financial institutions and consumers can fight against burgeoning fraud, I was reminded of the teaching of a former co-worker from much earlier in my career. Having just finished serving in the army, that co-worker highlighted the motto of the Seven Ps. Those Ps being “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance”. The current, and with all-due respect to the members of our armed forces, better-etiquette, saying is limited to the Four Ps—Protect, Prepare, Pursue, and Prevent. Using this, readers can gain a holistic understanding of how more resilient, human-centric systems can be designed and built to combat fraud. 

Protect: Safeguarding More Than Just Data 

Protection is the primary line of defense, extending beyond a company’s balance sheet to its reputation, customer trust, and employee well-being. In the digital age, this means creating safeguards that are both technologically advanced and human aware. 

The human side of protection involves recognizing that the primary target of many modern fraud schemes is not system vulnerability, but human psychology. Social engineering preys on trust, fear, and urgency. As such, the most crucial protective measure becomes continuous human training and awareness. Staff must be educated in the latest social engineering tactics, red flags in communication, and subtle behavioral changes that might indicate internal fraud, such as an employee living beyond their means or refusing to share job duties. 

Furthermore, dealing with victims of fraud requires a distinct human touch. A customer who has lost their life savings to an online scam needs empathy and clear, supportive guidance, not automated responses. Human analysts serve as the compassionate front line, helping victims navigate a distressing experience and rebuild trust in the institution. 

Prepare: Cultivating Resilience and Expertise 

Preparation means anticipating complexity and ambiguity, as fraudsters constantly adapt their methods. Technology helps, but it is the trained professional who must handle the unexpected. 

A significant human challenge in this phase is managing “alert fatigue”. Advanced fraud detection systems generate high volumes of alerts, many of which are false positives (legitimate transactions incorrectly flagged as fraud). Analysts, overwhelmed by the sheer volume, may become desensitized to actual threats. This is where human expertise and critical thinking are indispensable. Experienced analysts provide essential feedback on the utility of detection models, helping to tune systems to be more accurate and reduce false positives. 

Preparation also involves developing professional resilience. Investigators deal with angry victims and deceptive individuals, requiring emotional intelligence and clear communication skills. The human element in preparation ensures that institutions are not just structurally ready with protocols but also staffed with people who are mentally and skillfully equipped to handle high-stress situations. 

Pursue: The Art of Human Investigation 

When fraud occurs, the pursuit begins. While data analytics help “follow the money,” human investigators are the ones who put the pieces together, often leveraging a combination of technical knowledge and investigative experience. 

Transactions in a digital landscape rarely move in straight lines. Criminals use layering, cross-jurisdictional transfers, and digital assets to obscure the path. Pursuing these requires human ingenuity to connect seemingly unrelated data points and understand the “why” behind the transactions. 

Crucially, pursuit relies heavily on inter-institutional and human collaboration. Sharing information between banks and agencies, often hampered by misinterpretations of privacy laws, is a human-led effort to overcome organizational silos. Human networks and trusted relationships between compliance professionals are essential to disrupt criminal activity effectively. 

Prevent: The Continuous Cycle of Learning 

Prevention is about learning from every case and educating both consumers and staff to stop future occurrences. 

Starting with an all-digital approach, one bank that worked with Amanda and her team initiated real-time transaction notifications requiring instant customer verification, to help prevent fraud. Another financial institution worked with Perficient to modify their in-app fraud education library updated weekly with new threats. AI-powered analysis of customer transaction patterns triggers proactive educational interventions before fraud occurs.  

This final P is not just all-digital but also brings us back to the human element as the loop-closer in the system. Every investigation offers insights into new fraud typologies, compromised onboarding flows, or novel social engineering tactics. It is up to human teams—investigators, risk managers, and product developers—to establish effective feedback loops. 

The human side of prevention is fostering a culture where fraud is not a siloed responsibility but a part of the organization’s DNA. It involves embedding “compliance by design” into new digital products, ensuring that human-centric insights are used to make systems inherently more secure. 

Conclusion: 

Ultimately, the digital age has made fraud detection faster and more data-intensive, but the core battle remains human versus human—the fraudsters’ psychology against the collective ingenuity and integrity of those dedicated to stopping them. By embracing the Four Ps of Protect, Prepare, Pursue, and Prevent, Perficient can combine their AI expertise with technical and compliance staff and ensure that both human and artificial intelligence are combined successfully at the heart of your firm’s defensive strategies against fraud.  

Our financial services experts continuously monitor the financial services landscape and deliver pragmatic, scalable solutions that meet the required mandate and more. Reach out to Perficient’s Director and Head of Payments Practice Amanda Estiverne-Colas to discover why we’ve been trusted by 18 of the top 20 banks, 16 of the 20 largest wealth and asset management firms, and 25+ leading payment + card processing companies and are regularly recognized by leading analyst firms.