Nearly three-quarters of UK financial institutions say their existing technology infrastructure is preventing them from adopting digital assets.
A staggering 92% of UK financial services firms still rely on legacy technology. That dependency is acting as a barrier between traditional finance and the digital asset economy, with 71% of institutions reporting they feel effectively locked out of crypto, tokenized assets, and related innovations.
The billion-pound maintenance trap
UK financial institutions collectively spend roughly £3.3B per year just maintaining their outdated core systems.
Legacy systems contribute to approximately £41M in regulatory fines each year, largely because older platforms struggle to meet modern compliance requirements around data handling, transaction monitoring, and reporting.
