I completely agree with you that currently most banks only pay lip-service to modern technologies, even if they throw buzz words around like crazy. Mainframes, COBOL, etc, are still the standards in many, if not most, large financial institutions.
My point is that when you actually boil down what a lot of commercial and retail banking is to it's core (I would exclude capital markets here, mostly for simplicity) then it's a technology and data problems. It's a technology problem that is surrounded by legacy systems, culture, and regulations.
Ultimately, though, I believe that those banks that can most quickly infuse themselves with modern technology and -- most importantly -- actually run themselves like technology-first institutions, will be the ones that have the most success in the future. I'm not sure any bank is currently doing that, exactly to your point about compensation.