Finastra has set up a cross-functional AI Centre of Excellence and appointed Chris McClellen as SVP and Group Head of AI to coordinate and scale its artificial intelligence efforts across banking products and services.
Finastra Establishes AI Centre of Excellence
The new Centre of Excellence will centralize AI initiatives, share best practices and accelerate deployment of AI capabilities across product, engineering and go-to-market teams. Designed as a coordination hub rather than a standalone product team, the CoE will align research, risk, compliance and delivery to speed repeatable, production-ready AI use cases for banks and fintech partners.
Chris McClellen to Lead Strategic AI Development
McClellen joins Finastra from Pluralsight, where he was Chief Product and Technology Officer, and brings prior experience in senior CTO roles across technology firms. He will report to CTO Mike Stawchansky and lead a team tasked with defining architecture, tooling and governance for AI initiatives across core banking and adjacent products.
Driving AI Value and Future Growth in Banking
Finastra CEO Chris Walters says the company expects AI to deliver significant customer value through improved automation and smarter workflows. The vendor already offers generative AI features, including an AI assistant and a document generation tool, and plans to expand engineering capacity with hires in Atlanta and India. This move strengthens Finastra’s push to integrate scalable AI into its core banking platform and supports faster product iteration and operational efficiency for clients.
By combining senior leadership, centralized governance and targeted hiring, Finastra aims to move from pilot projects to broad adoption of AI across the financial services stack.
