KPMG 2025 Global Banking CEO Outlook

The annual KPMG Banking and Capital Markets CEO Outlook captures the perspectives of senior banking leaders on the issues shaping their organisations over the next three years.

Drawing on responses from CEOs across major markets, the report explores confidence levels, earnings expectations and M&A appetite, while examining in depth the themes dominating boardroom agendas, notably AI-powered technological innovation, workforce transformation, cybersecurity and resilience, and the evolving role of sustainability.

The findings reveal a common thread: growth ambitions are strong, but they sit alongside structural shifts in technology, talent and risk. AI is central to competitive strategy, yet raises questions of trust, governance and cyber exposure. Workforce models are being reshaped as skills, roles and career paths evolve in response to automation and intelligent systems. Sustainability is embedded more deeply into strategy, but increasingly framed through resilience and long-term value preservation rather than compliance alone.

For businesses, these issues cannot be addressed in isolation. They must be integrated into operating models, governance and culture to enable organisations to create and protect value.

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Peter Rothwell

Partner and Head of Banking

KPMG in the UK

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Key insights for business from the CEO Outlook

AI in the boardroom

65% of banking CEOs identify AI as a top investment priority.

70% plan to allocate 10%-20% of budgets to AI.

56% cite ethical challenges as major barrier to implementation.

The survey shows that AI governance and controls have moved from a technical consideration to a board-level priority in banking, reflecting the rapid shift from pilot experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment.

With 65% of banking CEOs identifying AI as a top investment priority and 69% expecting returns within one to three years, AI is now central to operating models, customer engagement, fraud detection and regulatory reporting. But as AI scales across platforms, models and use cases, governance frameworks must scale with it. Structured oversight across the model lifecycle, covering explainability, accountability, validation, and continuous monitoring, enables banks to deploy AI consistently and safely, turning ambition into sustainable value rather than unmanaged risk.

The CEO Outlook makes clear that trust is the critical enabler of AI adoption. Ethical challenges (56%), data readiness (55%), and lack of regulatory clarity (55%) are cited as major barriers to implementation, while 86% of CEOs identify cybersecurity as the most significant threat to growth . AI therefore operates in a dual role: it is both a powerful cyber defence tool – supporting fraud detection and threat monitoring – and an expanding attack surface as adversaries deploy increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled attacks.

Effective AI governance must address both these angles, embedding controls such as bias testing, adversarial testing, transparency standards and real-time monitoring by design. In a sector built on trust, robust governance is not simply about regulatory compliance, it also protects consumers, preserves brand integrity and reinforces operational resilience in an increasingly digital ecosystem.

Workforce implications

80% of banking CEOs say AI is reshaping workforce development.

83% are prioritising workforce reskilling to leverage AI.

78% say workforce readiness or upskilling could negatively impact their organisation.

Workforce transformation has become an increasingly important consideration as AI reshapes banking at speed and scale. The CEO Outlook shows that 78% of banking CEOs believe AI workforce readiness or upskilling could negatively impact their organisation if not addressed. This reflects a fundamental challenge: AI capabilities are evolving faster than traditional training models. Workforce strategy must therefore move beyond discrete training initiatives toward embedding continuous learning, experimentation and AI literacy across the organisation. Talent readiness is now directly linked to competitiveness and long-term resilience.

The survey also finds that 79% of CEOs say AI is redefining entry-level skills and 80% believe it is reshaping workforce development. As procedural tasks become automated, businesses face the risk of weakening their future leadership pipeline if entry-level roles shrink without redesign. Leading institutions are responding by strengthening learning and development, prioritising analytical judgment, cross-functional collaboration and adaptability, and reconsidering reward models to recognise skills and value creation rather than purely hierarchical promotion.

More broadly, AI is beginning to blur traditional functional boundaries as organisations reengineer core processes into integrated, AI-enabled workflows. In this context, fixed career paths are less relevant than building a culture of curiosity, resilience and responsible experimentation. Sustainable value will not come from marginal productivity gains alone, but from aligning workforce capability, governance and operating model redesign. Businesses that embed workforce transformation into their broader AI strategy will be best positioned to convert technological change into long-term competitive advantage.

KPMG 2025 Banking and Capital Markets CEO Outlook

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Executing on ESG

51% of CEOs are prioritising compliance and reporting standards to meet investor and regulatory demands.

60% say sustainability is embedded into their business strategy.

85% see AI enhancing climate risk modelling and scenario planning.

Sustainability is moving from being a disclosure-led issue to being seen as an indicator and enabler of strategic resilience. The survey shows that 51% of banking CEOs are prioritising compliance and reporting standards, reflecting ongoing regulatory pressure. However, 60% now say sustainability is embedded into their business, signalling that ESG is no longer treated as a standalone reporting exercise. The focus is increasingly on preserving value through supply chain resilience, energy security and long-term operational stability, rather than positioning ESG purely as a reputational or compliance requirement.

Resilience is becoming the dominant lens through which ESG is viewed. Boards are recognising that adaptation and transition investments, whether in infrastructure, renewable energy or supply chain redesign, are essential to safeguarding future performance. The survey supports this convergence: 72% of CEOs believe AI can help identify resource efficiency opportunities, and 85% see potential for AI to enhance climate risk modelling. For banks, this creates a dual opportunity: to finance large-scale transition infrastructure while strengthening their own resilience to climate and geopolitical shocks.

AI also sits at the intersection of sustainability and strategy. The CEO Outlook finds that 75% of leaders view AI as a driver of responsible innovation aligned with climate goals. Yet the technology itself must be deployed sustainably, from data centre energy use to intelligent grid optimisation. The strategic implication is clear: competitive advantage will not come from compliance alone, but from integrating sustainability into capital allocation, technology strategy and operating model design.