Technology

According to a report commissioned by the UK’s Treasury, Britain’s financial services system is experiencing an existential skills crisis. Why? As digital start-ups have moved quickly to offer desirable working benefits such as flexible hours or learning and development opportunities, financial institutions have been comparably slow to react to new workplace demands.

Banks take security very seriously, for obvious reasons. They pride themselves on their ability to protect against threats, both externally and internally. Without consideration, however, the need to protect can come at a cost to a bank’s customer and employee experience. While many banks have done a great job of balancing their customer experience with their security needs, few have considered the impact this can have on employees.

It’s a fact. The exponential growth of data directly impacts financial institutions’ ability to do business efficiently. And there’s no sign of that growth slowing down, with IDC conservatively predicting a 26% CAGR data growth in financial services companies between 2018-2025.

Do you remember when banking meant wasting time queueing in-branch, or poring over paper statements? Thankfully, the industry has come a long way since then. Today, managing your finances is as easy as logging in to an app; and opening an account is as simple as verifying your identity with a selfie.

Bankers are bullish on digital transformation. According to 2018 research by the Boston Consulting Group, 86% of financial institutions agree that digitization will upend the industry and permanently transform the competitive landscape.

Technology has brought us all closer together but at times, makes it more difficult to know exactly with whom we are dealing. Accurate customer identity verification is crucial for financial services, especially when the potential for criminal activities such as money laundering is factored in. Regulators are joining in the challenge by specifying how customers’ identities should be verified online, with the new 5AMLD in Europe lending guidance to banks.

One of the most common perceived concerns when adopting the cloud is the issue of security. For organisations like banks, safeguarding customer data is priority number one, so security is always going to be a primary consideration when implementing new technology.

South Korea’s penchant for technological innovation has not penetrated its financial sector as much as one might expect. Its established banks have been on the conservative side, but that is changing as the government, recognizing its attributes, promotes the growth of the fintech sector, with a particular emphasis on inventive payments and lending providers. Korean consumers are benefiting from the mushrooming choice of cutting-edge financial-services options now at their disposal.

New players driving fresh business models, innovative products and increased adoption of the power of big data affect not only the provision of financial services but the fundamental structures of financial markets. As the tectonic plates shift, banks need to actively seek and embrace new opportunities. For the data economy to thrive, fintechs and bigtechs to provide client choice without affecting financial stability, and for crypto-assets to provide a viable option to traditional assets, regulators must master the art of balancing innovation with regulation.

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the relationship between banks and the public cloud. While financial institutions were initially reluctant to embrace the technology, they are now amongst the most likely to do so. According the Culture of Innovation Index, recently published by ACI Worldwide and Ovum