Cloud transformation is essential for financial services, but it must balance innovation with compliance. RISE with SAP offers a structured path to modernize ERP systems, securely, flexibly, and in line with regulatory needs. With T-Systems as a Premium Supplier, that journey becomes smarter, sovereign, and sector-ready.
Cloud adoption in Europe’s financial services industry is at a pivotal stage. Across banking, insurance, and capital markets, digital transformation is rising in priority. Institutions strive to become more agile, more data-driven, and more responsive to customer needs and regulatory changes.
Despite growing investment in digital capabilities, many financial services organizations are still only partially using the cloud. SAP observes that despite the growing value derived from computational services, many core business processes, especially the most critical, continue to run on-premises.
This insight depicts the gap that many financial firms are trying to bridge. They see the potential value in cloud, but they also see the complexity, the regulatory scrutiny, and the high bar for operational security. As a result, their transformation journeys tend to be cautious and incremental, not fast or linear.
This caution is understandable. Financial services are a highly regulated industry. From the European Central Bank (ECB) guidelines to the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the evolving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, institutions face significant oversight. At the same time, they manage vast volumes of sensitive data that must be protected at all times, at rest, in motion, and during processing.
These realities shape how financial organizations think about cloud. It’s not about “if” anymore. It’s about how to move in a way that balances innovation with compliance, agility with control, and speed with sovereignty.
These advancements require modern, high-performing infrastructure, whether on cloud or not, to support real-time analytics, integration, and scalability. Many organizations are layering intelligence over existing systems, including mainframes, to capture value without full cloud migration. AI is also evolving into a vital business asset, adding new dimensions to modernization strategies.
For financial institutions, mainframes continue to support many mission-critical workloads. Yet, the pressure is mounting. Skill shortages, aging infrastructure, and the demands of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven workloads are making modernization even more urgent.
Cloud platforms offer the flexibility and scalability needed to meet these evolving needs. However, most financial organizations are not moving everything at once. The hybrid cloud model has emerged as the preferred approach, enabling a balance between innovation and operational continuity.
With RISE with SAP, institutions can modernize step by step, preserving core systems while gaining access to cloud-based innovation, automation, and intelligent analytics. This shift is not just about staying relevant. It is about building the agility to respond to rising complexity, computational demands, and AI-driven change.
Despite the urgency, cloud transformation in the financial sector is not straightforward. As mentioned earlier, financial institutions operate in one of the most sensitive and controlled environments in Europe. They must balance:
For many CIOs, this raises a fundamental question: How can we modernize our SAP systems and move to the cloud without compromising security, control, or compliance?
The answer lies in choosing the right approach. One that is flexible, regulation-aligned, and purpose-built for the financial services context.
This brings us to the next question.
RISE with SAP offers a cloud transformation pathway towards SAP Business Suite, which simplifies this complexity. It brings together SAP Cloud ERP, infrastructure, core applications, and transformation services into a unified, subscription-based model, making modernization more manageable and less fragmented.
While RISE with SAP is ideal for enterprises seeking structure and efficiency in their cloud journey, SAP also offers GROW with SAP for cloud-native or fast-scaling businesses. However, for regulated industries such as finance, RISE provides the framework for architectural governance, operational resilience, and auditability that compliance-driven organizations need.
Yet even the standard RISE approach may not fully cover the nuanced requirements of financial institutions. This is where the RISE tailored option, delivered by SAP Premium Suppliers such as T-Systems, makes a real difference.
With the tailored option:
T-Systems delivers this through its certified private cloud, hosted in Germany and specifically designed to comply with German and European Union (EU) regulations, as well as the requirements of the financial sector.
As the only SAP Premium Supplier for RISE in Europe, T-Systems offers much more than just cloud infrastructure. We bring a combination of certified hosting, deep SAP know-how, and end-to-end transformation support across both SAP and non-SAP environments.
Our RISE tailored option offering is built around:
We also collaborate with trusted partners such as KPMG, who support transformation and compliance projects across SAP and the finance sector. Our combined expertise helps clients align business goals with regulatory expectations.
For financial services firms, the pressure to modernize is clear, but so are the risks of getting it wrong. You’re not looking for buzzwords. You need solutions that align with your regulatory environment, operational priorities, and long-term strategy.
Here’s what leading banks and insurers tell us they expect from their SAP journey, and how T-Systems helps deliver it.
A stable, transparent roadmap: You need certainty to plan. Shifting product names and unclear timelines don’t help. T-Systems helps you cut through the noise and stay aligned with SAP’s roadmap, giving you planning stability and clarity across the transformation lifecycle.
Financial services functionality that fits: From real-time payments to ESG reporting, compliance, and risk analytics, you know what your business needs. With T-Systems, you get access to SAP capabilities that are relevant to your industry. We help you deploy the SAP tools effectively, without overcomplicating your landscape.
AI that’s responsible and ready: AI adoption in finance needs more than performance; it requires explainability, compliance, and real-world relevance. From intelligent automation to anomaly detection, T-Systems supports AI that integrates into your operations and meets the standards your auditors would expect.
A composable, compliant data strategy built on sovereignty: You’re already sharing data with regulators, partners, and platforms. We help you design a composable architecture that enables secure data exchange, full visibility, and regulatory transparency. And because your data environment must also remain sovereign, we ensure it’s built to meet European legal and operational standards, keeping control, access, and compliance fully in your hands.
Many assume that cloud sovereignty is no longer a differentiator, but for European financial institutions, it remains a critical requirement.
DORA, GDPR, and sector-specific guidelines emphasize operational resilience and legal control over data. Financial firms must be able to answer these questions:
T-Systems’ private cloud solution meets these needs by offering:
We understand that sovereignty is not just a technical requirement; it’s a strategic safeguard.
Financial services organizations across Europe are at a turning point. They are expected to modernize, but not at the expense of compliance, security, or continuity.
T-Systems helps clients find the balance between transformation and trust. We bring:
Whether you’re just beginning your SAP journey or need to modernize across platforms, we guide the way with clarity, confidence, and cultural sensitivity.
You don’t have to choose between innovation and compliance. With the right partner, you can have both.
T-Systems makes RISE with SAP a secure, flexible, and future-ready option for financial services and insurance companies in Europe.
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