Banking executives are expecting substantial changes in the industry over the next three years according to a survey of over 400 banks and credit unions. Areas in which changes will be most significant include personalization of product offerings, fully digital account opening, declining numbers of branch offices, and a significant increase in financial services offerings by Big Tech (Apple, Google) companies. The pace of change in the industry continues to accelerate, increasing the importance of responding quickly to these new challenges.
Payment processing is a high volume/low margin business that is experiencing a radical transformation through the emergence of new competitors and new technologies. For smaller financial institutions, partnerships with other companies will be the key to continuing to field competitive services in this area.
TikTok is more than just videos of kids doing goofy things. It can be an important marketing channel to use to reach younger generations. A search on the site using the #fintok tag will bring up a bunch of surprisingly good videos on a variety of financial topics. This can be a great opportunity to promote your brand – particularly by offering short educational videos.
The mission of branches and call centers is being transformed into acting more and more as support centers for digital banking services. This requires creating omnichannel experiences, integrating digital tools into the branches, re-focusing staff on the handling of more complex customer interactions, and relying heavily on data to understand and anticipate customer needs.
Companies often set unrealistic goals and expectations as they embark on digital transformation projects. Steps to avoid that issue include recognizing the company’s limitations from the start, having technology and business unit teams must work closely together to define the desired customer-centric outcomes, creating success metrics, and using agile development processes with continuous feedback that will allow teams to respond quickly to changes in requirements.
What is innovation in banking? It’s not about moving services that were previously handled in-person available to an app. Innovation is about understanding customers’ needs and pain points and then creating solutions to address them. This perspective on innovation can help companies deepen relationships with customers and differentiate themselves from the competition.
