Financial services, as we enter 2020, have never been more open to innovation, collaboration and transformation, as established banks are challenged to adapt, like it or not. Worldwide, and especially in countries in which access to financial services was previously limited or nonexistent, financial technology is offering a bold and exciting new world to those financial firms that will employ it. What are the probable trends in the coming months?
Most banks have processed the message that they need to change if they plan to stay competitive in today’s financial world, increasingly infiltrated by fintech and bigtech disruptors. But the change that is required goes beyond changing strategy; it involves transforming the entire culture of a bank, from the top down. What are the practical steps banks must take to change their internal cultures and use technology most effectively?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, through which emerging technologies converge to push the boundaries into uncharted territory, has already begun, and data is the fuel that is powering it. Forward-looking banks are not just riding but driving the wave, discovering and implementing the many advantages that vastly improved multi-channel analytics of today’s deluge of data offers.
The platform economy, today’s economic and/or social online matchmaker, is set to transform another industry – financial services. To keep up, banks will need to adapt their business models to an outside-in approach that recognizes the importance of openness and collaboration in developing personalized products and services that enhance the banking experience for customers and enable them to manage their finances holistically.
In Europe, PSD2 is opening up previously inaccessible bank-customer data, with customer consent, to third-party providers, all in an effort to provide consumers with more financial options at the best prices. Although some bank managers are focused mostly on compliance, others are looking at the bigger picture: at Open Banking as a new opportunity to boost customer satisfaction and meaningful interaction.
App developers are shooting ahead like missiles, struggling to outdo each other in the creativity department, and customers are loving them for it. But are banks keeping up, or have they been left out of the digital party, still struggling with outdated systems that simply “don’t do” technology all that well? 2017, characterized by the unexpected, is separating the serious contenders from the rest.