The digitalisation of banks is seen as the omnipresent challenge which the banking industry is currently facing. In this digital change process, banks are facing disruptive innovation that requires adaptation of almost all cooperative processes. Digital transformation in the financial industry is associated with obstacles that seem to hinder smooth implementation of digital approaches. This issue has not been adequately addressed in the current academic literature. The main purpose of this qualitative exploratory study is to identify the main perceived obstacles to digital transformation in both the private and commercial banking sectors from a managerial point of view and to analyse them accordingly. The methodology is based on a methodological approach using a combination of contextual interviews with German board members of banks, inductive content analysis, and the exploration of best-practice approaches. The findings revealed that elements of strategy and management, technology and regulation, customers, and employees receive a high level of attention within the digital transformation. The other main barriers can be found in the areas of market knowledge and products, employee and customer participation, and public benefit. Each main barrier is characterised by several sub-barriers of varying importance for the digital transformation of banks and is described in detail.

The financial sector is undergoing extensive changes and challenges that affect the entire market and infrastructure of financial service providers. Technological development leads to increased digitalisation and allows new business models to emerge. With regard to the banking sector, it is evident that this sector is characterized by employees and associated services. However, due to changing conditions, a decline in personnel has been recorded for many years. This raises the question as to what extent—based on contrary assumptions of the principle agency theory and the expense preference hypothesis—personnel changes influence the operational success of banks. On this basis, six hypotheses were formulated and tested. The principal component analysis method was applied to prepare the data. Afterwards, the actual analysis was carried out using a mixed method approach. The results on the basis of the years 2013–2017 showed a negative personnel development, which contributed to the improvement of the operating results of banks. Hereby it becomes evident that the business model design of savings and cooperative banks is of secondary importance.

The financial services sector, particularly with respect to today’s banking industry, is aiming to make a digital transition. Sustainable reporting is a holistic new reporting approach in banking and has only become partially mandatory for the sector. Thus, this paper makes a contribution to the current analysis approach and further development of the German Sustainability Code as well as associated legal approaches. It concerns the assessment of mandatory sustainable reporting in the light of constantly changing market conditions and stricter legal requirements for stakeholder data responsibility. In specific, it focuses on a digital evolving business environment and is intended to provide an insight into the perception of the topic of digitalization in the banking sector. The assessment is based on the structure of the German Sustainability Code. Based on 113 bank reports, a multiple regression analysis of 1410 codings of the keyword ‘digital’ is carried out. The results show that banks partly and not fully address digital issues in their reporting. It transpires that the emphasis is on seven criteria, while social elements are totally ignored. The paper shows a structural inequality within sustainable bank reporting with regard to digitalization. It also shows that issues are not adequately addressed and covered in legal reporting standards and that the provision of information to stakeholders on specific issues is largely undefined.

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