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maintain the trust that our clients are putting in us .” Trust is an essential component of ING ’ s partner ecosystem (“ once you earn it , you need to keep it ”), as is the ability to meet industry regulations without stifling innovation and discerning the most exceptional startups operating in fintech . Currently collaborating with over 200 companies that meet this criteria , Guillaumond nevertheless states that maintaining a “ win-win-win ” mindset ( i . e . mutually beneficial for clients , ING and fintech concurrently ) is of still-greater importance to ING . “ It ' s not about the number of partnerships ; we would prefer less partnerships if it meant greater global impact ,” he says .
Beyond just data , Guillaumond speculates that the accelerated exploration of digitisation will be the enduring legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic . Global lockdowns coincided with a general spike in consumer interest in digital banking , app-based payment services and contactless transactions instead of cash . However , this shift introduces fresh challenges : “ More digital also means more cyber risk , because you are presenting new opportunities for attack , right ? We are very cautious of that .” Also , from an internal perspective ,
DECEMBER 2020