As financial institutions accelerate digital transformation and deploy AI across their operations, a silent but systemic challenge is emerging: software quality.
The industry’s pursuit of speed and innovation is increasingly colliding with the realities of resilience, trust, and risk management.
Amid tightening regulations and public scrutiny after high-profile outages, experts warn that the sector can no longer afford to treat QA as an afterthought.
That is the view of London-based Clayton Baxter, Vice President of GSI and Advisory Alliances for EMEA at software testing multinational Tricentis, who argues that quality assurance has become “a business imperative, not a technical afterthought.”
“Nearly two-thirds of global businesses admit to deploying code without fully testing it,” Baxter stated, referring to findings from recently published Tricentis’ 2025 Quality Transformation Report.
“The consequences are catching up. More than forty per cent estimate that their annual losses from poor-quality software exceed $1 million, with financial services firms reporting the most dramatic shortfalls,” he pointed out.
For Baxter, the issue goes far beyond missed deadlines or budget overruns.
“This isn’t just about budget overruns: it’s about trust, resilience, and risk,” he argued. “Two-thirds of organisations expect a major outage or disruption within the next year, and a quarter of them consider that risk ‘extreme’.”
“Think of QA like insurance. It’s a safeguard against costly rework, outages, negative headlines, and lost revenue.”
– Clayton Baxter
According to Baxter, the growing complexity of IT environments has left many institutions reliant on external partners for quality assurance, not only for execution but for strategic guidance.
“Few companies have the internal resources or expertise to tackle it,” he said. “The result is a growing dependency on external partners for quality assurance, not just for execution, but also for guidance.”
He urged managed service providers, independent software vendors, and systems integrators to take a more proactive stance.
“The opportunity isn’t simply to help implement new technologies,” he stressed. “It’s to lead with quality, acting as trusted advisors who bring structure, discipline, and strategy to software delivery.”
Quality as a business safeguard
Baxter believes the financial services sector needs to reframe QA from being a “value-add” to being as essential as cybersecurity or regulatory compliance.
“Think of QA like insurance,” he explained. “It’s the safeguard against costly rework, outages, negative headlines, and lost revenue.”
He warned that “poorly tested software doesn’t just damage a product. It can sink a reputation.”
Citing examples such as the Post Office scandal and the 2024 CrowdStrike outage, Baxter noted that the real-world consequences of software failure now include operational disruption, regulatory scrutiny, and even legal liability.
While AI-driven tools are transforming software development, he cautioned that they also introduce new risks.
“Over 80% of IT leaders express excitement about using AI to accelerate delivery and automate repetitive tasks,” he said. “But there are serious concerns about governance, explainability, and trust.”
“The same tools that can help accelerate QA can also introduce bias or create blind spots if deployed without discipline,” he warned. “That’s why organisations want more than automation. They want responsible implementation and to trust that what’s being deployed is not just fast, but right.”
Building quality at scale
Baxter said partners have a “unique opportunity to lead” by helping clients balance innovation and reliability through AI-driven testing, quality intelligence, and autonomous validation.
“Autonomous testing will play a valuable role in QA, particularly in improving speed, analysing test results, and maintaining test cases,” he added.
That, he said, opens the door to a new kind of engagement between partners and financial institutions: one “focused on enabling quality at scale, even as complexity increases.”
“The market needs partners who understand that quality is not a phase, it’s a mindset,” Baxter continued. “From advisory through implementation and ongoing support, partners who embed QA into every phase of delivery will be the ones who earn lasting trust.”
In an era dominated by automation and AI, Baxter’s message to the industry is clear: “Speed matters. But trust matters more. Organisations that ignore software quality are gambling with their future. Meanwhile, those who build with resilience in mind can move both faster and smarter.”
“For today’s partners, this is a moment to lead,” he concluded. “Not by selling solutions, but by shaping them. Not by reacting to quality failures, but by preventing them.”
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REGULATION & COMPLIANCE
Looking for more news on regulations and compliance requirements driving developments in software quality engineering at financial firms? Visit our dedicated Regulation & Compliance page here.
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