Banking

Corporate-banking customers have been slower than consumer-banking clients to jump on the digital bandwagon but are on it now, searching for single-source solutions to meet all their product and service needs under one digital umbrella. Both traditional and challenger banks are in the race to fulfill this quest, but which will prevail?

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all the economies, big or small, across the globe. Central banks everywhere have been proactively dealing with the situation and have successfully pushed a large amount of liquidity to the banks through various means. However, due to widespread uncertainty caused by the pandemic, banks are reluctant to lend, and consumers are hesitant to avail credit. This article highlights the adverse impact that surplus liquidity may have on the banks and economies if adequate demand is not created.

Has digitization put the bank branch and cash on the extinction list? Not while consumers still demand them. To prosper today and in the future, banks will need to snatch the opportunities digital transformation offers them. Digitization is not a threat but a promise for better customer service that meets consumers where they are.

Digital payments promise greater convenience and efficiency with lower cost but also carry substantial potential risk to the economy at large. The long-term success of this innovation will depend on the development of a top-down, holistic regulatory framework to securely govern digital payments, maximizing benefits while minimizing risks.

The pandemic has ignited banks’ digital transformations and stressed People as our key priority. Leading from the heart, closing the digital-skills gap, translating corporate purpose into action, undertaking a transformation that is strategically anchored and risk-balanced and maximizing customer experience, will propel banks into a better shared future.

It is undeniable that global markets are intertwined, and this is no more apparent than in the interbank funding market. Recent research shows that the default risks of US banks are imported through wholesale funding by global systemically important banks of many other countries, affecting their funding costs and blunting monetary policy.

Who could have predicted that a health crisis would result in a banking metamorphosis, with banks adopting the digital-platform model as consumers embrace digital self-service channels? Banks need to follow a series of steps to stay ahead on the journey to an agile, data-driven future, providing services embedded in their customers’ lives.

The COVID-19 crisis proved how nimbly governments could step up to the plate to support the private sector. But have they done too good a job, becoming the source of all things to eagerly waiting firms, including banks, at the expense of self-reliance? What type of capitalism do we have if governments are omnipresent? As debts levels continue to grow, is equity the solution for “sunflower capitalism”?

Bank clients have embraced online channels to complete routine transactions, but this doesn’t mean they no longer seek human contact. When the time comes to cope with complex financial matters, individuals and small businesses alike often want a human financial partner. How can banks best meet this demand for blended customer service?

Climate change, renewable energy, biodiversity, social equality and other sustainability objectives are top concerns for financial firms and stakeholders. To be on the right side of the transition, banks need to adopt strategy models that incorporate social and environmental factors in loan criteria. Only then will they begin banking for impact.