How DORA shapes the customer experience in banking 

In the financial sector, trust has always been the cornerstone of customer relationships. But as banking becomes increasingly digital, maintaining that trust now depends as much on operational resilience and data integrity as it does on financial stability. The European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which came into effect in 2025, is reshaping how financial institutions manage both technology and experience. 

While DORA primarily focuses on ensuring that banks and financial institutions can withstand and recover from IT disruptions, its impact extends far beyond the technical domain. It influences how banks handle sensitive customer data, ensure transparency, and deliver secure, reliable, and compliant customer experiences. 

DORA and the link between compliance and customer trust

DORA’s goal is to strengthen digital resilience across the financial ecosystem by setting strict requirements for ICT risk management, third-party oversight, and incident reporting. However, in practice, it also sets new expectations for how banks manage the systems and data that underpin every customer interaction. 

For customers, resilience translates directly into confidence. A secure and compliant digital environment signals reliability, whether that means uninterrupted access to online banking or reassurance that personal and financial data is protected from breaches. DORA compliance, therefore, becomes more than a legal obligation, it becomes an experience promise. 

Financial institutions that communicate their resilience and compliance credentials clearly are better positioned to reinforce customer loyalty and strengthen the broader customer experience in the financial sector.

In a landscape where trust can be lost in a single breach or outage, resilience and transparency become differentiators of customer experience. 

Sensitive customer data and the challenge of secure insight

The banking industry handles some of the most sensitive personal data available, from identity information to income, spending behaviour, and even lifestyle patterns. This data is essential for personalisation and innovation, but it’s also a major risk factor if not handled with care. 

Collecting customer feedback or running experience surveys adds an additional layer of responsibility. Every response, review, or interaction becomes a data point that must be managed with the same level of security and compliance as financial transactions. 

Under DORA, the focus on data governance and risk management means that institutions need clear oversight of how data flows across systems and vendors. Where is customer feedback stored? Who has access to it? How is it processed and protected? These are no longer operational questions; they’re strategic ones that affect both compliance and experience. 

A secure and structured approach to customer insights enables banks to act on feedback without compromising privacy. By consolidating customer data within controlled and compliant environments, financial institutions can identify patterns, measure satisfaction, and spot early warning signals while maintaining the highest security standards. This balance between insight and integrity will be a hallmark of successful banking experience strategies under DORA. 

AI opportunities and the challenge of internal scepticism 

Artificial intelligence offers transformative potential for the banking industry, automating analysis, detecting risk patterns, and personalising customer communication. However, adoption remains cautious. 

Within many banks, AI is still viewed with scepticism, not because leaders doubt its value, but because of legitimate concerns about transparency, explainability, and regulatory risk. Decision-makers in banking are wary of the “black box” problem, AI models that produce outputs without clear justification. In a sector built on accountability, this creates hesitation. 

To move forward, banks need to balance innovation with governance. AI systems must be explainable, auditable, and compliant with DORA’s risk management requirements. When implemented responsibly, AI can strengthen operational resilience rather than threaten it, for instance, by helping banks predict service disruptions, detect fraudulent behaviour, or analyse customer sentiment securely and at scale. 

The same technology that supports compliance can also enhance customer experience. AI-driven analytics make it possible to transform raw feedback into actionable insights, helping banks understand customer needs in real time. With clear visibility into sentiment, satisfaction, and emerging pain points, financial institutions can act faster and with greater precision. AI in this context isn’t a replacement for human decision-making, but an intelligent layer that supports it, helping teams act confidently while maintaining full oversight. 

The role of ISO certification and operational integrity

ISO certifications, such as ISO 27001 for information security, play a vital role in supporting DORA compliance. They demonstrate that an organisation follows best practices in risk management, data security, and operational continuity, all core pillars of digital resilience. 

For banks, ISO-certified systems and partners provide assurance that sensitive customer information is protected within a robust and traceable framework. They also simplify audits, support regulatory alignment, and strengthen credibility in customer communications. In essence, ISO certification is the practical foundation that allows banks to meet DORA requirements while maintaining customer trust. 

Operational integrity, supported by frameworks like ISO, builds confidence internally and externally. When internal teams know that systems are compliant and secure, they can focus on innovation and experience improvement. For customers, it ensures that every interaction, from opening an account to applying for a loan, is backed by systems that are both safe and reliable.

Integrating resilience, data, and experience intelligence 

DORA and ISO frameworks ensure that financial institutions build stronger, more secure foundations. Yet compliance alone isn’t enough to deliver great customer experiences. To thrive, banks must transform compliance-driven systems into experience-driven ecosystems. 

Modern financial organisations collect thousands of data points daily, from customer surveys and feedback forms to transaction records and service interactions – a challenge that often explains why banks struggle to understand their customers. Turning this information into actionable insight requires the ability to connect data sources, identify trends, and act swiftly. Experience intelligence, the combination of data consolidation, automation, and contextual analysis, allows banks to bridge this gap. 

By applying structured insight processes within a compliant framework, banks can: 

• Detect customer frustrations early and prevent churn, 

• Strengthen loyalty through personalised, secure interactions, 

• Link operational performance with customer satisfaction outcomes, 

• Build cross-functional collaboration between CX, IT, and compliance teams. 

These capabilities ensure that resilience and experience evolve together. A bank that can anticipate issues, act transparently, and continuously improve builds not only regulatory strength but emotional loyalty. 

Building resilience as part of the customer experience 

Customer experience in banking is no longer defined solely by digital convenience or personalisation. It’s defined by reliability and confidence. Every outage, security incident, or compliance failure directly affects how customers perceive the brand. 

DORA compliance gives financial institutions an opportunity to elevate resilience from an internal process to a customer-facing value. When customers know that their data, transactions, and communications are handled with security and transparency, their trust deepens, and with it, their loyalty. 

Banks that successfully integrate compliance, data governance, and secure technology into their customer experience strategies will stand out not just for innovation, but for integrity. In a future where resilience equals reputation, DORA isn’t just shaping compliance, it’s redefining what great customer experience looks like in banking.