Digitisation is driving unions across the financial world, and especially in the payments industry. Mastercard’s pioneering acquisition of the UK bank-account-based payments system Vocalink sets a precedent for such mergers all around the globe, in large measure due to the growing influence of the world’s first truly digital generation, the Millennials, who demand instant transactions in real-time.

Millennial and Gen X bank customers seem to be relatively independent, adept at employing online and mobile apps to complete their financial transactions. However, research shows that these digitally confident customers still value personalised advice, especially regarding investment decisions—and retail banks are in the best position to meet that need through immediate, tailored solutions developed using available customer data.

The tidal wave of banking regulations during the aftermath of the last financial crisis has given a boost to an unlikely beneficiary: artificial intelligence. Regtech along with AI, ML and NLP are the new warriors employed by many forward-thinking banks to get a handle on the massively costly compliance workload, and many are witnessing a return to profitability as a result.

Traditional banks have a long history, which is good and bad—good because of well-established customer relationships; bad due to cumbersome legacy systems, some created in the days of analog, that struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the digital age. Like it or not, to keep up with customers and competitors, most banks have a lot more ground to cover.