Financial Services IT & AI Consulting
Proven IT Leaders with Track Records in the Financial Services & Fintech Industries
Financial Services IT Experts
The financial services sector has always been at the leading edge of technology – from mainframes and ATMs to mobile apps and fintech platforms. Today, the industry faces even greater challenges: protecting customer data, navigating ever-tightening regulations, and meeting rising expectations for seamless, digital-first services. Finance has a special place in our hearts, as our founder spent a good deal of his career working in this space, serving as CIO for two subsidiaries of money center banks.
Through our flagship CIO Advantage® tech leadership service and our foundational CIO IQ® IT & AI Advisory offering, Innovation Vista provides independent vendor-neutral IT & AI strategy to the Financial Services industry. Our consultants combine deep technical expertise with direct experience leading IT for banks, credit unions, investment firms, and fintech startups. We know where general IT best practices apply, and where financial services require specialized strategies for compliance, cybersecurity, and digital transformation.
Unlike firms that place generalists into financial roles, our experts have been CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs in the sector. With CIO Advantage®, the focus is not just on stabilizing and optimizing technology platforms, but on aligning IT with your core priorities: safeguarding trust, scaling digital channels, and creating capabilities that drive competitive advantage in a fast-moving marketplace.
Achievements for Financial Services clients from our Consulting team
Our Financial Services Scoreboard - Impact & Expertise
A.J. / Financial Data Company
Led Software Engineering team for 2 years
A.J. / Structured Data Product firm
Led the Analytics development team for 3 years
A.R. / European Wealth Advisor
As Interim CTO, transitioned company to new ownership, developed new IT strategic roadmap, integrated infrastructure and initiated an AI program which created competitive advantage and grew market-share.
A.S. / Community Bank
Vice-Chairman and head of Technology
B.A. / Business Payroll Division of Large Bank
As CIO/CISO, led technology strategy to enable a 20-fold increase in revenue for the division.
B.B. / Community Bank
As head of IT operations, led a tripling of the bank's branches over a 3 year period.
B.E. / Regional Bank
As CIO, initiated an automation program, secured rare '1' rating on FDIC IT audit, and facilitated a successful sale/merger of the bank.
B.W. / Electronic Stock Exchange
Led the acquisition & integration of 10 tech companies and smaller electronic stock exchanges
B.W. / Hedge Fund Services firm
As CTO, led a Digital transformation of their business model and a global expansion
C.C. / Loan Origination Software firm
As CIO, led the development & enhancement of custom loan underwriting software supporting hundreds of banking clients
C.V. / Proprietary Trading firm
Led an upgrade a expansion of the firm's IT platform, creating a scalable performant enterprise.
C.W. / Investment Management firm
As CIO advisor, provided strategic roadmap and interim IT leadership to several port-co's, improving system performance and stability while reducing costs 5%-9%
D.B. / Money Center Bank
Led the development of custom proprietary trading system which handles billions in transactions for the firm and its clients
D.B. / Money Center Bank
Led the Client Reporting BI function for a top 20 global bank
D.C. / Canadian Credit Union
As CIO, developed and executed a digital transformation & upgrade program for the CU.
D.F. / Mortgage company
Led Cybersecurity strategy & execution for a midsize mortgage origination company
D.N. / Consumer Finance Startup
Served as Virtual CIO/IT strategy advisor and Angel investor for a tech-forward fintech startup
D.T. / Regional Bank
As contract Head of Enterprise Architecture, developed strategic digital roadmaps for both Commercial and Consumer lines of business.
F.J. / Fintech startup
Led startup tech strategy, platform architecture, team leadership, and AI/software development
F.V. / Fintech startup
As Virtual CIO, led the IT strategy & development of a personal finance digital advice platform
F.V. / Institutional Investment Management
As Interim CIO, led a turnaround of the IT organization & platform of a major institutional investment management firm
G.B. / Large Payments processor
As Head of IT security & compliance, led network engineering, cybersecurity, and governance compliance, reducing spend by $18M over 2.5 years.
G.C. / Fintech startup
Advisory board member of a tool to evaluate traders' performance in a real-time, full-market simulation
G.C. / Lending tools software firm
Led Software Engineering on a suite of products to support consumer finance lenders through the full lending cycle
G.M. / Major Credit Bureau
Led the Enterprise Information Architecture function, which is central to the firm's credit scoring algorithms
H.T. / Moneycenter Bank
As Group CTO, upgraded and unified the data & integration architecture, established sound data governance to position for trustworthy AI.
J.B. / Digital Transactions clearinghouse
Head of Information Protection & Compliance for a digital billing & payments transactions service.
J.H. / Regional Bank
As Interim CIO, led the IT organization through acquisition by a larger competitor
J.H. / Regional Bank
Advised the C-suite and IT leadership on e-commerce strategy
J.K. / Banking Software company
Led the New Technology efforts for the leading provider of banking software in the U.S., achieving $2M in recurring savings
J.K. / European Fintech SaaS startup
Provided initial IT strategy & architecture guidance for startup until transitioning to full-time leadership
J.K. / Financial Services Software firm
As Interim CIO, led completion of strategic mobile app development before transitioning IT to full-time leadership
J.K. / Mortgage Services company
As CIO, led a digital transformation of their business model which drove 40% in costs reduction
J.K. / Retirement Plan management firm
As CIO, led major upgrade and consolidation of software systems support multi-millions of customers, over $100B in AUM
J.O. / Large Investment Advisory firm
As CIO, transitioned to cloud, agile/devops best practices and leveraged offshore resources in India & Latin America, driving 30% reduction in IT costs.
J.R. / Investment Management firm
As CTO, led a major process & IT platform upgrade to position technology as a strategic advantage for the firm
J.R. / Mortgage division of Money Center Bank
As CTO, transformed IT into a profit center via the upsale of analytics data & reporting to portfolio investors
M.B. / Fintech bill-pay startup company
Led a major infrastructure, cybersecurity, and cloud upgrade to enable 15x scaling for a SaaS startup in the fintech bill-pay space.
M.D. / European Financial Services firm
As CTO, led the upgrade of corporate infrastructure and fully revamped information security protections, achieving major improvements while holding overall spend relatively flat.
M.D. / U.K. Financial Services firm
Advised on fintech strategy to create unique capability for competitive advantage.
M.P. / Investment Management firm
Led design & development of a custom system providing strategic competitive advantage to the firm
M.R. / Financial Ratings Agency
As GRC Consultant & Fractional CISO, recommended, surveyed, and implemented Identity Access Mgmt. (IdAM), Data Loss Protection (DLP), & Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) protections.
M.R. / Large Financial institution
As Fractional CISO, integrated secure CI/CD pipeline, upgraded data protection, identity management, and vulnerability management.
M.R. / Payment Processing Software firm
Over a decade leading the software development & tech services delivery functions for a major payment processor
M.T. / Equipment Finance company
As Virtual CTO, led the design & development of a blockchain-based custom lending platform to syndicate financing of industrial equipment
R.B. / Large Canadian Credit union
As Senior VP and Head of Innovation for 4 years, led a major upgrade of the credit union's underwriting & account processing systems, integrating them for advanced analytics.
R.B. / Nationwide Credit Unions
Spent 7 years as the top cybersecurity executive at two different credit unions with U.S. nationwide footprints
R.M. / Billing & Payment Processor
As CTO over two decades' tenure, led the development of the company's flagship e-commerce payments & billing products
R.R. / Asset Management firm
As CTO, powered expansion of firm into seven business lines including ABS, CRE, mortgages, structured Lending, PE, and a REIT.
R.U. / Lease Financing Company
Served as Virtual CIO leading IT for 6 years until the company grew to need a full-time CIO
S.A. / Global Insurance Giant
Led their IT GRC initiative & IT Finance oversight, driving 10% savings on a $250M IT budget
S.H. / Subscriptions management SaaS co
As Fractional CTO, transformed their technology strategy from B2C to B2B and streamlined their resource/project planning.
S.P. / Capital Investment subsidiary of a Global Conglomerate
Led their global Digitization process for enabling functions
T.K. / Crypto Currency Wallet Platform
Served as Head of Engineering for a major Crypto Currency Asset Management platform
T.K. / Online Brokerage
Served as Manager of Software Engineering, leading development of their custom e-brokerage platform
T.K. / Midsize Mortgage company
As CIO and CAO for over a decade, led the digital transformation of the company's underwriting and servicing systems to become a strategic advantage
Z.K. / Major Financial Ratings agency
Led infrastructure/cybersecurity upgrade which both raised stability and saved $2M/year for the organization.
State of Innovation in Financial Services
Our 2025 Summary of Innovation in the Financial Services industry
Financial services firms are at the forefront of adopting emerging technologies to improve products and operations. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a dominant theme – in fact, generative AI is expected to be one of the most influential trends permeating banking and finance this year. Banks and insurers are leveraging AI for everything from personalized customer service chatbots to algorithmic trading and fraud detection.
Hybrid cloud architectures are also gaining traction, as institutions seek scalable, compliant ways to manage data and applications. At the same time, cybersecurity has become paramount with the rise of digital services; financial firms are investing heavily in risk management tools to counter increasingly complex cyber threats.
Another key focus is open banking – using secure APIs to share financial data – which is expanding as customers demand interoperability and fintech integration. Additionally, financial institutions are emphasizing sustainability and ESG initiatives, like financing green projects and reducing their carbon footprint, in response to regulatory nudges and customer expectations.
Overall, the financial sector in 2024 is balancing innovation with caution: introducing cutting-edge tech like AI and blockchain to enhance services, while ensuring robust security and compliance in a highly regulated environment.
Financial Services Leaders First - Then tech consultants
Our Unique "Top-Line ROI" Approach to Financial Services IT & AI Strategy
Like many consulting firms, we help financial institutions with Stabilizing IT platforms, protecting sensitive data, and Optimizing architecture, service levels, and budgets. These are critical foundations – but in financial services, they are only the starting line.
With CIO IQ®, we begin by aligning IT strategy with your firm’s broader objectives. For a bank, that could mean preparing for regulatory exams while enabling new digital banking products. For an investment manager, it may involve modernizing data pipelines to support analytics and AI. For a fintech startup, the priority is often scalability and speed-to-market. The “right” technology strategy is always tied to your business model, regulatory environment, and growth goals.
Where we deliver the greatest impact is in Monetizing technology. We help clients Innovate Beyond Efficiency® by turning IT and data into revenue enablers — whether through digital platforms that attract new customers, analytics that drive smarter lending and investing decisions, or capabilities that command higher valuations. In financial services, technology isn’t just an enabler of compliance and security; it’s a lever for market share, enterprise value, and long-term advantage.
IT & AI Strategy for Your Financial Services Niche
Financial Services Sectors Covered
- CFPB, FINRA, SEC, FFIEC audit compliance
- Banking
- Investment banking
- Investment management
- Consumer lending
- Commercial lending
- Mortgage lending
- Mortgage servicing
- Mortgage insurance
- Financial exchanges
- Commodity & currency exchanges
- Commercial & personal insurance
- Financial services specialty software
Analytics Maturity in Financial Services · Analyzing our Mid-market Survey
Our experience in Financial Services IT & AI consulting shows us that these firms are among the most data-intensive organizations in the mid-market. From banking and lending to wealth management, insurance brokerage,
Getting Started with AI · A Guide for Financial Services Firms
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping financial services at breakneck speed. From fraud prevention and underwriting to portfolio modeling and customer personalization, AI is no longer just a futuristic concept; it is already
Turning IT into a Profit Center · Client Success Story
Innovation Vista keeps our past clients and partnerships confidential. Unless you choose to publicize our joint work, the public – and specifically your competitors – will not know you are working with
