Banks are notoriously slow to adopt new technologies. They remain deeply skeptical of open-source solutions. After nearly two decades working with banking institutions across the Middle East, I've seen this pattern repeatedly.
But here's the thing: this conservatism isn't irrational.
When a payment system fails or a security breach occurs, the consequences aren't just technical. They're financial, reputational, and regulatory. This creates a culture where caution wins.
Why banks prefer licensed vendors:
They get clear contractual accountability. Enterprise-grade support with SLAs. Dedicated security teams. Someone to call at 3 AM when things break.
Open-source projects, even mature ones, struggle to offer these assurances.
The perception problem persists:
"Who do we call for support?"
"Is it really secure?"
"What if the project gets abandoned?"
"Who's accountable when something goes wrong?"
These aren't unreasonable questions. They reflect the realities of operating where technology failures have massive consequences.
Despite the conservatism, the shift is underway. Several irreversible trends are driving it.
Cloud-native architecture demands it. Modern banking transformation requires containerization, Kubernetes, and microservices. These technologies are fundamentally open source. Banks adopting cloud-native find themselves using Kafka, Redis, and PostgreSQL whether they planned to or not.
Vendor lock-in fatigue is real. Decades of proprietary dependency taught banks a painful lesson. Lock-in limits agility and increases costs. Open-source alternatives offer freedom and negotiating leverage.
Enterprise open source has matured. Red Hat, Confluent, MongoDB, Elastic. These companies bridge the gap by offering commercial support, compliance certifications, and accountability on top of open-source foundations.
Talent expects it. The next generation of banking technologists grew up on open source. Restricting teams to proprietary tools makes hiring harder.
What we're seeing in 2025 isn't wholesale adoption of open source. It's pragmatic hybrid approaches.
Open source for infrastructure: Kubernetes, Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL, MongoDB.
Commercial support contracts: Even for open-source tools, banks buy enterprise support.
Proprietary for core banking: Legacy systems remain largely commercial, but integration layers increasingly leverage open source.
Selective adoption: Banks choose tools that have achieved "enterprise-grade" status with proven track records.
Don't fight the conservatism. Work within it. Build business cases that address accountability, support, and risk concerns directly.
Start at the edges, not the core. Introduce open-source technologies in integration layers and DevOps tooling before touching core banking systems.
Partner with vendors who bridge the gap. Work with integrators who have deep banking experience AND modern open-source expertise.
Focus on outcomes, not ideology. The goal isn't to become "open source first." It's to build resilient, scalable, cost-effective systems.
Over the next 12-18 months, expect continued digitization of manual processes. Enhanced payment systems built on modern messaging infrastructure. AI integration rooted in open-source ecosystems. Hybrid cloud adoption requiring open-source orchestration.
Banks won't abandon their preference for accountability and support. But they're learning that modern open source, especially with commercial backing, can deliver both innovation and stability.
The question isn't whether banks should adopt open source. It's how they can do so strategically.