This paper aims to elaborate on the emerging trends in the banking industry and their impact on the future of banking. It explains how firms can become sustainable even amid financial crises. It also presents a framework with which changes in the macroeconomic environment can be detected and their effect on the internal logic of a firm can be interpreted; this framework is intended to set the ground for a new banking business model that can cope with the changing landscape.

In the banking context, legacy systems date back about 40 years in the developed world, and 25-30 years in the developing. Over the years, these systems have been "patched up" repeatedly to cater to changing requirements. Now it is becoming impossible to stretch their rigid mainframe architecture and limited capabilities any further to meet the current needs of the business, which has changed almost beyond recognition in the last few years. The writing is on the wall, and it reads "legacy transformation".

The social media boom has coincided with the global financial crisis. This means that banks are being most talked about at the time when they are least popular, and on social media, every comment has the potential to go viral. To complicate matters further, the bank's ability to respond is often restricted by concerns about regulatory compliance, privacy and security. This paper aims to explore ways in which banks can reverse the tide of negative sentiment, and get customer opinion to work in their favour, rather than against them.