Banks exist to serve the financial needs of consumers, through whatever avenue works best. With the rapid evolution of technology, more tools and resources are available than ever before to determine and meet those needs. Personalization in banking works when the customer is the focus, but without customer-centricity as their anchor, banks drift from what really matters. What steps can banks take to stay focused in today’s changing financial environment?
There has been a rapid increase in the size and number of investments into UK fintechs with the likes of Monzo and Revolut leading the charge. Interestingly, it is not just the VC funds driving this; banks are also investing or in many cases, acquiring fintech companies outright.
The scourge of financial crime is increasing. It’s being driven by organised crime rings, fuelled with billions of compromised data records, who are systematically and methodically targeting financial services firms with sophisticated application fraud attacks that use stolen or falsified identities in an effort to obtain new accounts.
Successful e-commerce is as much about the customer experience as anything else. Choices need to be clear but abundant; payment quick and easy—or customers will move on. Having become accustomed to purchasing goods and services seamlessly through digital channels, customers expect the same from their providers of financial products and services. Banks need to employ a lesson or two from the e-commerce giants to meet customer expectations.
Open Banking, which allows third parties to build applications around the activities of established banks, is curtailing the way banks have always functioned. The tried-and-true vertical-integration model, through which a bank maintains a firm grip on all of its operations, is being replaced by a more cooperative approach. How will innovative banks fulfill their roles as suppliers, producers and retailers of financial products and services in the Open Banking era?
The United States has reached a critical point in determining data privacy standards. With mounting concern among all stakeholders, it is no longer a question of whether more privacy laws will be enacted, but how—and specifically, whether the problem will be resolved at the state or national level.
Competition is intensifying in the banking sector, with fintech start-ups, technology giants and social-media leaders targeting various parts of the financial-services profit pool.
The banking and insurance industries are dominated by well-known companies that are deeply embedded in the consumer consciousness. However, as technology has evolved, the competition from startups has intensified.
How can banks and financial institutions get through to the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, the so-called “millennials”, also known as Generation Y, given their shorter attention spans and distrust of brand loyalty?
Anyone working in banking knows that customer expectations are charging ahead at full throttle, fuelled by technology advances. Fortunately banks can use innovations such as AI and IoT to meet customers where they are at, and a recent Fujitsu report shows they are doing—or planning to do—just that. So what can we reasonably expect banking to become as a result of this transformative process?