Simplification reads well in an annual report. Lower costs, quicker decisions, fewer systems and less friction all signal progress. Inside a global bank, however, the reality is often messier.

According to Corlytics, every change leaves something behind. Retire a system and its data must be moved. Merge two teams and their duties must be redistributed. Outsource a service and someone must still oversee it. Deploy AI and the bank must decide where it can be trusted, where it must be checked and who is accountable for the outcome.

That question of ownership runs through the 2025 annual reports of HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank and UBS, all systemically important financial institutions. While the five differ in business mix and challenges, their shared priorities stand out: stronger returns, greater efficiency, technology investment and tighter risk management.

Deutsche Bank completed a €2.5bn operational efficiency programme, including changes to its German platform and job cuts. Citi focused on modernising technology and reinforcing its risk and controls environment, while UBS pressed on with integrating Credit Suisse.

Decades of acquisitions and piecemeal fixes can leave banks with arrangements nobody would build from scratch. The hard part is understanding what legacy systems actually do before replacing them.

Reconciliations, exception handling, approvals and record keeping still need an owner. Banks should ask whether work has been removed, automated or reassigned, whether the new owner knows it, and whether they have the authority and information to act. Undocumented knowledge, often living in one experienced colleague’s spreadsheet, is easily lost.

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